Update

Sorry for the lack of entries here! There hasn't been much to report, but here's what's been going on (from the feralia.net homepage):

We will be releasing the second book in the Feralia series (title soon to be announced), as well as a rerelease of the original novel! We’re shooting for a late summer or fall release this year for both books. They will also be available in eBook format.

The original novel will be newly edited. The sequel is finished and awaiting editing and cover art.

We’ll still be using this blog for book news, however the tumblr. account is updated almost daily for fun, quick entries. Don’t forget to join us on Facebook, Twitter, etc. also!

(Late) Final Fantasy XIII Review

I’m normally not a big game reviewer, but after spending 120+ hours (and counting) on Final Fantasy XIII, I thought it was worth taking the time to discuss. There seems to be an amazing array of mixed reviews and feelings out there about FFXIII. In fact, I feel like I’m in the minority being a long time fan of the series who actually liked the game.

Rather than hesitate, let’s jump right into some of the complaints people have with the game. Some of them I totally understand, others I just can’t at all. The issues with the game seem to include (but are not limited to): too linear, lack of towns and stores, lack of exploration, poor story and delivery, and even the music. Hopefully I’ll address all of these as I go on.


Graphics
This seems to be for the most part agreed on as one of the game’s strong points. The colors, environment and character design are simply beautiful.

Story
FFXIII’s story has garnered a lot of criticism for a lack of substance and being overly complicated or confusing. Without spoiling anything, I’ll agree that the story wasn’t amazing, but I didn’t think it was terrible either. I really liked the characters and the worlds they travel through. I will say that the story is very deep and complicated. If you want to have a full understanding of everything, you’re really going to have to read most of the files and take the time to get the most out of it. I did this, and didn’t mind, but I can understand that some players are not into stopping to do this, and to them, the story lacked.


Gameplay
Perhaps one of the most criticized elements of the game, I’ve read reviews with complaints that it’s too overly complicated and others that state that it’s way too easy. I thought if anything it leaned toward easy, but for me that was a blessing after struggling with FF 12’s tedious gambit system. After getting the hang of FFXIII’s Paradigm system, I thought it was quick and fun to play, with enough of a challenge at times to keep from becoming too easy – especially if you take advantage of all of the side quests outside of the main storyline – some of these can be extremely challenging. Some of the bosses were tough as well. So overall, I found it to be fun, with enough strategy to stay fresh, and more than enough challenges for those who search them out.

Music
Going into FFXIII, I wasn’t expecting much without longtime composer Nobuo Uematsu, who has done such amazing work over the years. But I must admit that I fell in love with the score. Masashi Hamauzu did an amazing job. I’m actually shocked at many of the criticisms I’ve read about the soundtrack and can’t help but wonder if Hamauzu didn’t have a chance with those fans because he isn’t Uematsu, or if they were just so turned off and angry with FFXIII being so different that things such as the music didn’t have a chance with them. Sure, it doesn’t sound like the old Final Fantasy music. But each FF is a new world with new characters and a new story. I understand nostalgia, but why should it have to be so similar? I thought the music was amazing, beautiful and very fitting for the environments. It’s all about opinions. Some thought the soundtrack had no emotion – I thought the opposite.

Negatives
While I really didn’t mind, the story can definitely be hard to follow, especially if you don’t take the time to do all the reading.
It’s definitely linear. I understand the complaints on this one, but I personally didn’t mind it, as I’ll explain below.
My only real complaints are minor:
I would have liked a fixed map (one that did not rotate with you), as I found it easy to get turned in the wrong direction and hard to look for landmarks.
A dedicated button to bring up the map would have been nice. (The Resident Evil games have spoiled me.)
I thought that although the game provides countless hours of fun and replay value for all of the missions, the story was a little short. I felt like I was only just getting to know the characters when it ended.

Positives
The smooth battle system is easy overall and not tedious, with enough challenge for those who seek it out.
The presentation (especially in regard to graphics and music) is incredible.
Great value – even paying full price for the game when it came out, I feel like I’ve gotten more for my $60 than I have in a long time – I’m almost done completing everything at a little over 120 hours.


In conclusion, I feel that I’ve grown up with the series, and the series has grown up with me. Some feel that Square Enix is trying to please the casual fans with a linear game, but for someone who’s grown up now and doesn’t have nearly as much time to play games, I loved the fast pace, lack of random encounters, and rarely having to do anything over. As much as I love the old games, I don’t miss finally beating a boss, only to get killed before reaching the next save point. I do think that many times series have to evolve to survive (love it or hate it, Resident Evil 4 is the perfect example). While I would like to see some of the old elements (such as towns, more open areas, a bit less linear paths) from previous entries in the series, I thought that FFXIII was a refreshing update to the series and highly recommend it.

Quick Review - Tyson

Ok, I know this probably seems like an odd topic in comparison to my usual subject matter. But, I figured, what the heck? It's interesting enough for me to babble on about for a little bit, so why not? ;) Anyway, recently I got to sit down and watch a documentary that I've been wanting to check out since it was released: Tyson. In case you haven't heard about it, it's a very personal overview of former heavy-weight champion boxer Mike Tyson's life, from his own mouth.

Growing up, I was one of those kids (like most of the other boys in school) that always sort of admired Iron Mike. The man was incredible. He even got extra cool points for having his own NES game!

As his career and life went on, as everyone knows, it got more and more controversial. To outside appearances, Mike seemed crazy and out of control. This is a reason I think the documentary is great. They don't shy away from any of that. Even Mike himself discusses how out of control things were. Is it biased? One sided? Perhaps. It is his side of the story. But the best thing (in my opinion, anyway) about Tyson, is that it really tells the story behind all of the craziness that went along with his amazing career.

Mike is very emotional at times. Once you learn about where he came from, all of the out of control times in his life make a lot more sense. I'm not saying that everyone will agree with everything he's done, but the film does a good job at peeling away the layers and revealing the person beneath all of that. It really makes everything (yes, including the ear biting) a lot more understandable upon reflection of his childhood and details of everything that he went through.

As far as the production quality, you'll notice that a lot of the footage used from early in his career is of low quality, which is understandable because of its age. However, I thought that did a lot to lend the film a gritty feel, which suited the subject matter well.

If I had one complaint, it would be that quite a few times during the documentary, they use clips of Mike talking, and then bring another clip of over top of it, and then another. I understand the effect they were going for, but for me it was really distracting as it cut off the beginning and end of a lot of his statements, making them jumbled and hard to understand. Other than that, however, I thought everything flowed nicely.

So overall, I would recommend Tyson to anyone who has even been even a little interested in his career or life. Keep in mind that its rating is for good reason - Mike is very candid and not shy at all about assigning expletive-filled descriptions to those who he felt did him wrong. I found myself agreeing with those descriptions more often than not, and thought that this documentary did a fine job revealing the man behind all of the controversy. Whether you like him or not, I think you'll at least understand him after watching it.

- Clint ^_^

worse to (much) better

It seems that life is always crazy in one way or another, for better or for worse. The past few years for me have been craziness mostly in the worse category, unfortunately. I’ll spare you the details, but it was due to pressure and anxiety from owning/operating a very stressful business. Thankfully, that’s behind me now, and growing farther and farther away each day. What was a 60+ hour a week mess (to put it lightly) which limited me in many ways is now gone, and for that I am truly grateful.

Throughout it all, however, I did manage to put a lot of work into writing projects. The newest of which, a second Feralia story, is moving along at a brisk pace. In fact, it should be finished very soon! My new – what should I call it? schedule? non-schedule? career change? – has provided me more time to devote to writing, and hopefully blogging! …Yes, I know, I know. I always say that. So let me just say that it’s still a goal, but I won’t set the bar too high. No pressure, right? ;) I do have some new ideas for blogs, so maybe the relaxed approach will work better.

In other news:

I’m happy that football season is here. I’m sure it will go too fast, as always, so I’m going to enjoy it while it lasts!

I’ve been keeping busy with the job that I love (and now have more time to devote to): Alicia’s Anime. Our customers are so cool! I lub dem. They’re always so excited and appreciative. We couldn’t ask for more wonderful customers. The familiar faces at anime cons are awesome as well!

Thanks to Viz and Hulu, we’re almost caught back up on Bleach since they are posting episodes just a week after they air in Japan! Now is the perfect time to catch up on Bleach and a bunch of other series.

And lastly, I’m enjoying Halo: Reach. A lot. Today I finished the campaign on Heroic. I got to play through the entire game co-op with my buddy Aaron, which was so much fun. Also, Matchmaking and Firefight are addicting.

We'll schedule the next entry for a relaxed 'soon.'

<3 Clint

Featured Artist Volume 3: The Unknownn

"Don't ask The Unknownn
who they are...
because they won't tell you

Don't ask The Unknownn
where they are...
because it's not worth knowing

In fact, the only thing
you need to know about
The Unknownn is in their music

Now stop asking questions and just
...listen"

So says the message currently found on the MySpace Music page of The Unknownn, a band whose music I was lucky enough to discover a year or two back. For my next featured artist, I wanted to share a bit of what I've discovered about the mysterious band. Hailing from somewhere in the UK, The Unknownn are a bit hard to classify, now that I think about it. It may in fact be easier to instead attempt to describe the moods the band creates. Why don't I start by just jumping right into, as the band says, "the only thing you need to know" about them - their music.

It was the debut album which caught my interest. Dark. Haunting. Beautiful. Dreamy. Those are the words that come to mind when I think of this album. The song Nocturnal was the first to really captivate me, with its moody synths and beautiful vocals. Raw quickly became another favorite with its gentle, eerily pretty intro, followed by crashing guitars. The album is very dark and emotional and at times epic and strong. Even the 51 second long instrumental Squeeze has an otherworldly, electronic feel to it. I was so excited to get into this album because it has such a refreshingly different sound.

The Unknownn recently released their second album, The Two, and I was pleased to find that while it is quite different, it still has all of the aspects that drew me to The Unknownn in the first place. The album is still electronic, and still dark, but moves into new territory musically for the band. One of the most notable aspects of The Two is the use of harmonies to accompany the already pretty vocals. They are very well done, and add a strength to the album. Also, while the first album could be called more epic, The Two is more cool and confident. The guitars and bass have an awesome, grindy sound. I've been listening to The Two to and from work and really getting into it. It's hard for me to compare the two albums because the debut album is special to me, but I think The Two is an even more solid effort, taking the best aspects of the first and evolving. It's solid all the way through, but the standouts for me right now are The Inside, The Hurt, The Misskiss, and The Slide Bastard, to name just a few.

I would definitely recommend both albums to anyone, especially those who are into anything electronic, dark and moody, and anyone who just wants something new and different. Visit their MySpace Music page (listed below) to hear some of their stuff. With any luck, The Unknownn will make their way over to the US and I'll finally get to see them live!

The Unknownn on MySpace
The Unknownn on Facebook
Official Website
The Unknownn on Amazon (you can sample the songs here, too)

Check them out!

<3 Clint

Featured Artist volume 2: The Pink Samurai

For my next featured artist I wanted to feature my friend Becky and her business The Pink Samurai. TPS features super cute, handmade items that cater specifically to geek culture. Are you a fan of Star Wars? Star Trek? Anime? Comics? Anything dorky? If so, then The Pink Samurai likely has something for ya.

The Pink Samurai has been at DC area conventions such as Otakon and Katsucon, and always has something new and cute up on the Etsy Page.

Check it out!

<3 Clint