Final Fantasy Type-0 (Report 3)

I'm really getting into the game/story now. Yesterday I finished an entire chapter in one sitting. But things are getting quite hairy. And will need to grind a little ... actually, quite a lot since, in the upcoming battle, the dragons defending the enemy camps are quite hard to kill. So will have to start training my top team -- Ace + King + Deuce -- as well as Machina, Rem and Trey ... Luckily I've just unlocked an area where the enemies/ monsters are quite high level so grinding for levels shouldn't be a real issue. I also need to test out Ace's attack more ... I don't think I am using him (and his teleport card) properly. 

This is a pretty challenging game ... not only because it's in Japanese (but that was how I played through FFVII: Crisis Core, which I actually didn't finish) but it does require some strategy thinking ... simply spamming attacks just does NOT work. As mentioned in a previous post, this game is a combination of Crisis Core and The 3rd Birthday ~ but only more fun.

Life on the yoga mat has been pretty quiet (as it should be!) I remember someone telling me that after about three years or so, it takes a long time for the next "breakthrough" ... currently I am still recovering from a tear in the left groin so am taking it easy. Will probably practise a bit more in the running up to the Ashtanga workshop with David Swenson (in April), which I am really looking forward to. 

Hajime Tabata

Without knowing it, I've been playing games created by this same guy from Square Enix: Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core (my first JRPG experience in Japanese), The 3rd Birthday and, now, Final Fantasy type-0. No wonder I got the hang of type-0 so quickly (and am now addicted to it)... the game mechanism is very similar to 3rd Birthday (especially when I'm using King the shooter). Instead of overdrive, we now have kill sight and just as Aya Brea could dive into different soldiers, I can switch team members ... type-0 is, of course, more fun as this is more than just a shooters game. Each character has a different set of skills etc. 

I began the game with, iirc, Ace, King and Queen (by default). I kept Ace cos he's the protagonist and switched out King and Queen for Machina and Rem (also protagonists), Then I realised I needed a range attacker so started training up King (guns) and Trey (bow). Deuce's magic is just as good as, if not better than, Rem so now I have Ace, King and Deuce in one team, backed by Machina, Rem and Trey as reserves. Perfect!

Think am now half way through Chapter 4 and it's all shooting at the moment (like The 3rd Birthday) ... if only this game is in English or Chinese it'd be more enjoyable ...

PS the Nokia 7280 I bought over ebay has arrived ... WOW, almost new and comes with original box and accessories ... and made in Germany! That was worth waiting for ...

A New Old Phone

Well, it hasn't arrived yet but I've bought a second-hand classic Nokia (7280) on ebay over the weekend -- for old time's sake. This is another so-called fashion phone (like the 7200 that I bought several months ago) that chooses design over functionality. They just don't make these beauties anymore. In fact, the phone market has become so monotonous/boring these days it lacks variety -- in looks and functions. The most popular models in this town are the iPhone and Samsung Galaxy S3/Note2. Occasionally you might see someone using a htc ... but they all look the same: touchscreen/tablet form ... *yawn* 

Nokia, Sony (after parting with Ericsson), Motorola and LG have all but disappeared to the maids market. I still like those pre-Window Nokias ... they are unique-looking even though they do are to make and receive calls (hmm, but that's more or less what I need). Maps are useful, I have to admit esp. when you are lost. The phone I use most is still the Blackberry Bold 9900 but it has a hardware flaw that is driving me insane. Trying to use its map a couple of days ago drove me insane.

Deuce ... she kills with a, er, flute

Anyway, while waiting for my new but obsolete phone to arrive, I am shuttling between three games: Persona 4: the Golden, Final Fantasy Type-0 and Uncharted: Fight for Fortune. Having put down Persona for awhile, it's great to just grind levels with a different team setup (but other than getting the individual stats up, there really isn't much left to do there); I'm kinda doing the same for Type-0, just doing a bit more grinding before I continue with the game ~ am in Chapter 3 now but since the game is in Japanese, I just feel I am not getting the most out of it. FFF is the latest I bought (so cheap, only about US$7) and it is a card game ... which is one of my favourite genres! However, I think this game is intended to be played WITH Uncharted: Golden Abyss, which I have no intention to start so I may have to give that up soon. So right now, I am back on Type-0 ...

Yoga practice is going well ... and I'm enjoying the benefits, which are not easy to put into words. I am just less frantic/manic and that having a clam(er) mind helps me with decision-making etc. Gonnabe useful for this year... 

Final Fantasy Type-0 (Report 2)

Okay, the coolest feature of this game is you can level up characters by simply putting the PSVita to sleep for several hours (!) Of course, that means you don't actually get to play the game (doh!) but for someone who has to work during the day and sleep at night, this feature is pretty neat cos it makes level grinding so much more easy ...

But other than that, I'm already a bit bored with it ... mainly cos I don't know what's going on most of the time story-wise (everything is in Japanese). So once the novelty of the gameplay wears off ... that's it. Also, since this game was released on the PSP than PSVita, the controls are really awkward. Maybe time to hunt for a new game or lapse back to Persona 4...

On the tech front, my Blackberry Bold 9900 has been playing up (track pad not responsive); however, I'm pretty stuck with it cos this model has the best keyboard EVER and that is what I need it for... 

Meanwhile, to celebrate the beginning of 2013, this Blog's Fourth Birthday and that the world didn't end, I joined a two-hour yoga class yesterday morning. It was a charity event and the session was led by half a dozen teachers from our studio. The class was divided up in such a way that each instructor would take turn to lead his/her own 10-15-minute sequence (like the sun salutation) so we ended up doing a lot of plank + chaturanga + down dog ... which was totally exhausting. But I felt pretty good afterwards.

Anyway, on with another year ...

Final Fantasy Type-0 (Report 1)

A couple of hours into Type-0 and I'm still fumbling with the controls and, well, everything. This game makes Disgaea 3 and Persona 4 look like child's play. There is so much going on gameplay-wise/story-wise/battle system-wise that I needed to print out a Bible-size guide just to familiarise myself with the Basics ~ and it is not even a walkthrough. There are missions, side quests, secret quests; and there are some 14 characters whose physical/magic abilities need to be learnt and upgraded... this is serious (J)RPG!!!

Like Final Fantasy Crisis Core, which was my first JRPG experience, this is all in Japanese so there is a lot of guess work going on here. Now that I've played quite a few JRPG, at least I know the basic requirements. The gameplay reminds me of 3rd Birthday ... oh yes, I can feel my neck going stiff already!!!

Rem & Machina

For thematic reasons I have decided to have Machina & Rem on my team, led by Ace. Quite fun to play with these characters right now but will explore more training ground before attempting more missions. So far, I had completed one and getting the hang of it!

Final Fantasy Type-0

So it's Goodbye Persona 4: the Golden and Hello Final Fantasy Type-0. 

Having done all that I'd wanted to in P4G NG+ (levelling up, getting all the skill cards and items), it's time to move on. But to what? I was looking around and there aren't that many choices. I'd started playing Final Fantasy 4 - the Complete Collection and FF3 (on the iPad) but I just didn't get into them. Despite them being "classics", well, that is exactly what they are ... Old Games. The interface is pretty basic and gameplay uninspiring. I'm sure they were great in their time (like, more than a decade ago, at least) but now they just feel dated. The fact I only have the PSVita really limits my choices.

So I checked out PSN (again) to see if there were any new titles ... no luck. A lot of the new releases are in Japanese ... then I noticed the price of FF Type-0 has dropped Significantly (from about US$62 to US$25), which is a Real bargain. Yes, it's Japanese but at least I am quite familiar with the FF gameplay (this is supposed to be quite similar to FF Crisis Core, my first ever FF experience). So quickly downloaded it and am being thrown at the deep end immediately; i.e. after the quick cinematic intro I have to start battling (totally oppose to P4G, which took forever to start...). So have to learn the controls pretty fast ... but so far so good, am still fiddling with the camera but am sure I will get used to that. The only downside IS I have no idea what's going on (other than the fact I need to beat the crap out of whoever that's in my way) ... But the premises is pretty interesting.

The story revolves around 15 students from a magic academy who are determined to fight the invaders of their kingdom. Players can have up to three students/characters on the team, each specialising in a different weapon/magic type. So I imagine there will be a lot of costumisation there ... 

There are several downsides; 1) the game is pretty dark, literally, and 2) I will need to look at a lot of walkthroughs on the Internet to actually understand what I'm doing. But thank goodness there is a quite a complete walkthrough on YouTube so I'll be following that.

Anyway, time to Type-0 .... will report later if it's a game that I can enjoy and complete...

The End of the World

OR is it? Well, the very fact I'm penning this blog does suggest the end is not quite here yet (in Asia anyway) but neither is December 21, 2012 over yet (It's late afternoon in Europe but morning in the US; though New Zealand and Australia had obviously survived the date ~ but the supposed disaster?) 

So, in the next few hours, what can still happen? Well, not being a rocket scientist myself but I assume nothing, like, BIG, is gonna hit earth; I mean, we would have known by now if, say, another planet/asteroid is gonna crash onto us (wasn't that how the dinosaur era, which lasted millions of years, ended?); neither do I think the Marsians are about to descend onto us in a surprise attack. I guess there can still be the possibility of undetected earthquakes/tsunamis (that can wipe out the whole of Japan) but let's hope not.

I'd decided to spend my "last day" at the yoga studio (naturally) and I took a "peaceful Yin" class ... of course, the teacher who gave the class is known to be a bit on the tough side so the 90-minute session was anything but peaceful. It was a hip opening class and, boy, were my hips opened after the class! We just did a series of poses that we had to hold for a LONG time and REALLY stretched the groin area ~ it was like an endurance competition. Instructor told us to concentrate on the (unpleasant) sensation of our body being stretched  but the more she said that, the more I concentrated on the (unpleasant) sensation ... but am sure the exercise was good for us since most of us spend our days sitting down and, as the result, our adductor muscles get shorter and tighter by the day ... and having tight adductor muscles means inflexibility and a lack of range of motion. 

There have been quite a number of scares over the past couple of years (remember whatever experiment that scientists were conducting at CERN was supposed to create a Black Hole and wipe the earth out? Well, that didn't happen and they discovered the Higgs Boson ... Whatever ... ) ... but the only real disasters I can think of now is the earthquake in Northeast Japan and the economic meltdown in the West. 

I think humans are forever optimistic and, yes, tomorrow is another day. 

Another day playing Persona 4: the Golden for me. Been grinding levels and farming skill cards (Absorb Wind is still missing but by fluke I got the extremely rare Absorb Physical card) and I have still to decide what to do withe the Trumpeter Persona ... compared to Alice, Yoshi, Kaguya and Tam Lin, it is still very weak and pointless ... so, more skill card farming to build it up ...

End of the World? Not yet ...