Cinematic story events like this one are when I’d be afraid of the game freezing back in the day.

Now we didn’t have a quality copy of FINAL FANTASY IX. One of my brothers had bought a cheap PS1 off some friend, once all the PlayStation fans were moving onto PS2. Then off another friend he borrowed an extremely glitch filled copy of FINAL FANTASY IX. I’d play FFIX off and on throughout the next few years. I remember always thinking at the known freezing spots or any cinematic scene, “Don’t freeze, don’t freeze, come on keep going,” because that was always when it would freeze. It froze when Black Waltz 3 would be shown in the distance getting ready to come after your airship on the way to Lindblum, when you went to enter Memoria and all the flying dragons came out, and when your party of characters stopped to look at the Alexandria Castle recreation at the beginning of Memoria. There was always some important story scene, mainly the cinematic ones, which you couldn’t get past. Eventually we had two glitched copies of FINAL FANTASY IX and when one would freeze, you’d take out the disc and switch to the second copy. Each copy had its own spots it got stuck at and they didn’t seem to share any. This was when I finally got to play through the game completely. I was around 14 or 15 when I first beat FINAL FANTASY IX. I don’t believe I played any other JRPGs during this time, not until after I finished FFIX. That same brother who got the PS1 may have temporarily borrowed a PS2 and I saw a little bit of FINAL FANTASY X, but I wouldn’t play it myself until quite a few years later.

I most definitely had to retry this battle in particular the last time I played.

FINAL FANTASY IX opened my up my world to a large and wonderful genre of video games. Before this, I hadn’t played anything with nearly as grand of cinematics. I hadn’t played a game with characters whose stories were explored as deeply either. The first thing I think that really got me into FFIX was that it was easy to play. Sure, I was probably confused half the time and didn’t know exactly what I was doing, but it didn’t require real-time skill. It wasn’t anything like a platformer or a shooter. I realized there was a genre perfect for someone like me, who loved gaming but definitely lacked the skill for it. Battles gave you time to think and all you had to was pick the correct option out of a menu of choices. If you couldn’t beat a boss and really got stuck, there was no actual practice required to get better. You merely had to go back, fight more regular enemies to level up and plan your skill uses more carefully when you attempted the boss again, perhaps change up some characters’ equipment as well. And once you managed to get yourself unstuck, you were treated to more story and possibly some new awesome cinematic scene.

The next brilliant thing about FINAL FANTASY IX was the soundtrack. I’m sure there were some decent soundtracks among the games I had played before, though I don’t think I experienced anything quite as extravagant as the soundtrack in FFIX. Part of what sucked me into this adventure was the music. Every story scene was paired with music that suited it perfectly. The Evil Forest had a mysterious and magical sound, Garnet’s song had a beautiful nostalgic sound to it and boss battles had a stressful, but very fitting, exciting sound. Who wouldn’t find themselves falling in love with JRPGs when you realized they had grand cinematics, interesting characters explored much more deeply than various other genres and beautiful music which melded magnificently with every scene?

One of many exciting covers which got me interested in playing what I hoped was a new JRPG to enjoy.

FINAL FANTASY IX was the start of what became an obsession with the JRPG genre. I remember after finishing it, I wanted anything that even looked like a cool JRPG. Before Christmas I’d browse game stores and look at game covers to find what I wanted to ask for. Later on once I had my own money to regularly spend on games and my own PS2, I’d browse the shelves of GameStop and stupidly buy anything that even looked like a JRPG. I say stupidly because this is when I consider myself to have still been a casual gamer. I didn’t research games on the internet and carefully pick out what I knew I would like or read reviews. Nope not me, I simply went to a game store, found cool JRPG styled covers and blew money on anything I thought looked interesting and resembled a JRPG. In this day and age when I could’ve looked up reviews and early YouTube likely had videos with footage of these games, I should’ve been more careful. Nonetheless, I led myself to some wonderful titles. My discovery of TALES OF SYMPHONIA was just me deciding it looked intriguing and asking for it for Christmas one year. I found my love of Shadow Hearts through playing my oldest brother’s copy of Chaos Wars and looking up which games featured in it had actually been localized. Yeah you’d think I would’ve looked up reviews or what other games I could get into. But no, I simply loved playing Chaos Wars and saw that Shadow Hearts was something with a fully localized series. Then one day I happened across the first and third game at a GameStop and bought them both. Later on I bought Shadow Hearts Covenant at a local retro game store. FINAL FANTASY IX was the beginning of my adoration for this huge genre that had already been coming out of Japan for decades.

Eiko is one of my favorite FFIX characters.

Despite having now experienced a ton of JRPG titles since I first stumbled upon these beautiful games years ago, I still consider FINAL FANTASY IX to be up there at the top. FINAL FANTASY IX is what I see as the peak of the FINAL FANTASY series. It has fun characters who are all very different from each other. It has a unique and wonderful soundtrack. Graphically and design-wise, it still holds up the best out of all of the PS1 FINAL FANTASY entries. It was created once SQUARESOFT really knew what they were doing with the original PlayStation having already made VII and VIII, they truly perfected the formula with IX. FFIX isn’t missing anything. It has a large overworld with all of the standard options of an old JRPG. There are fun minigames, what with the chocobo treasure hunting and Tetra Master card game. Even the equipment system is ideal with its five slots and how you learn your skills from keeping certain stuff equipped throughout numerous battles. I will always adore FINAL FANTASY IX, it’s wonderfully charming and to this day, it is the epitome of what a JRPG should be.

If you have yet to experience FINAL FANTASY IX for yourself, you can buy it in the eShop or the PlayStation Store. And if you want to experience it more traditionally, a digital copy of the original version is still purchasable for PS3 and PS Vita.

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Since I’ve started playing games when I was a kid, there have been many games I’ve completed or at least attempted to get through. I was open to play nearly any genre, even when my short attention span made it difficult to keep up with certain games. While Metal Gear Solid cemented its place for me when I was young as my favorite series (no matter the pachinko machines that mock me now), there is another game series that I hold just as highly: Valkyria Chronicles. While series like Final Fantasy and Fire Emblem were among my favorites, my interest in these types of games began to wane. After the thirteenth installment of a certain series ended up not living up to expectations I more or less gave up on RPGs for the most part, the only exception being Fallout.

While Valkyria Chronicles was a game I was aware of due to the lack of games early on in the PS3’s life, I didn’t really have a chance to give it a try. A few years later when I was in college I actively set out to do anything other than school work, meaning that gaming had become one of the main focuses of life again. About this time I was getting a bit burned out on the usual multiplayer titles I played with friends and wanted something different. It was then that Valkyria Chronicles somehow popped into my head, even though it had been a couple years since I last heard of it.

With nothing other than an impulsive urge I set out to pick the game up. However, the GameStop I went to ran out and had to get a copy from a different store. But they had the second game in stock, which was a surprise considering I actually didn’t know there was a sequel. So I ended up playing the second game first and while there were some negatives to it, I’m glad to have played it as it introduced the world to me. While some aspects were a bit annoying I put almost 200 hours into it before I finally made the jump to the original game.

Valkyria Chronicles was a game that appealed to me in so many ways. There’s of course its art style which was wonderful to look at. It made it something that stood out, especially when compared to games seeking to look realistic or those that leaned more toward the usual anime aesthetic. While I’ve always liked turn-based games, I found the BLiTZ system which the game used to be much more engaging than just selecting your action and waiting. Being able to take control of the character and do the action yourself made it more exciting. The fact there are mines, obstacles, and enemies firing at you as you advance made it feel like a real battle. Then there was also the fact that the game’s main weapons were firearms instead of the usual melee weapons, which was a bit of a breath of fresh air to me. While the second game added more classes, including ones with melee weapons, I didn’t miss them going from the second game to the first.

The setting based off of the World Wars was also an interest grabber due to me being a history nerd. While the game obviously isn’t supposed to be a history lesson, quite a bit of the design was inspired by things from the wars. One of the biggest is Welkin’s tank, the Edelweiss, having features based off a number WWII tanks like the Tiger. Little things such as how one of the weapon upgrade paths for the Shocktrooper class leads to developing a weapon that resembles a German MP44 impressed me. Details like these made me feel like the designers really looked into the past for inspiration. I ended up getting the art book for the game a bit later on, and well I couldn’t have guessed at how much they really did research.

Besides that there is the story and characters. While I won’t ever say that the game has the absolute best of either, it had more charm to it than anything I had played for a while. I will admit there were times when it became saccharine sweet, though with how the game is presented it didn’t feel all that out of place. There were some tropes here and there with the characters, but they were different enough to be memorable. Welkin, Alicia, Isara, and the others each have their quirks and issues which keep them interesting. Besides the characters relevant to the main story, the other members of Squad 7 have their own personalities and back stories which make them unique. Certain ones definitely stood out and became my personal favorites, like the members of Edy’s Detachment.

While you saw the war from Gallia’s side and knew of the aggressive nature of the Empire, it didn’t paint things black and white. It wasn’t just simply about good and bad; it touched upon the grey areas of war. While it had examples of the crueler aspects of war, it also touched on how the enemy was still human. Events like Welkin and Alicia attempting to take care of an injured Imperial soldier show how they were still people. Selvaria, the Valkyria of the Imperial Army, is a tragic character who had a difficult past. She is extremely loyal to and fights for Prince Maximilian, only to then be more or less thrown away by him. On the other side of it there are Gallians who are shown to be quite less righteous and respectable than the members of Squad 7. The game also showed how the war affected everyone. Welkin, Alicia, and the other members of Squad 7 didn’t want to fight in a war. They’re just normal people, but they needed to rise to the occasion due to the circumstances.

It didn’t take long for me to go back and try and get an A rank in every mission once I finished the game for the first time. I picked up all the DLC and did the same with those too. While I preferred the original on the PS3, I was still excited when I found out about the third game in the series, which was on the PSP. I couldn’t wait for it to be announced for the West, only to be disappointed by not hearing any announcement for it. It might sound dumb, but it didn’t really occur to me that the game might not make it out of Japan. I never really wanted to or had to import a game before, so this opened up something new for me.

I will say that I did end up getting a copy of Valkyria Chronicles 3. I was overseas on a vacation going around when the thought popped into my head to look around for it. After several attempts and knowing barely any of the language, with nothing relevant regarding the game, I was able to finally find the Extended Edition of the game. Even though it was all in Japanese and there were several changes made to the gameplay, I still was able go through the game pretty smoothly. I did have to go back once an English patch for the game was released. I can say that I enjoyed the third game as much and at times, a little more than the first game.

I eventually was able to follow Riela’s route and understand what was happening.

While it does have its rough spots here and there, the Valkyria Chronicles series quickly became one of my favorites. I do have to give praise specifically for the first game for what it did for me. In addition to the characters, setting, and gameplay that I’ve very much enjoyed, it made me return to the kinds of games I more or less abandoned for some time and changed how I looked at them. Titles that I wouldn’t have given a second look to before were now games I now thought might be worth checking out. After the disappointment of Valkyria Chronicles 3 never coming West, I found many more games that never were localized that I now wanted. The series opened up a whole part of gaming for me that I will always be thankful for. I can say that this is a series I will always be following (excluding Valkyria Revolution).

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I will confess that I was originally not very interested in Xenoblade or at least back when it was called Monado: Beginning of the World. As much as I loved the Wii, I was always skeptical of action-adventure games on the console due to the trend tendency of shoehorning in silly motion controls. When I first saw the Monado announcement I kind of wrote it off but still followed the development. Eventually I saw an update online that the game was going to be renamed as Xenoblade. Being a HUGE fan of both Xenogears and Xenosaga, seeing the word ‘Xeno’ in a title is more than enough to get my attention. Needless to say, I put in a preorder soon afterwards.

When I finally got around to playing the game, I was immediately hooked. Right down to the title screen, Xenoblade was something special. The characters particularly Shulk felt so damn relate-able to me and the environments he would explore was so interesting and fascinating to watch. Seriously, just watching how some areas change from day to night is just as entertaining as exploring the area. In spite of this, Xenoblade was not quite the technical marvel when it came to the visuals even for the system and time. This is the kind of game that will make you wish an HD version was officially available. One thing we can probably all agree on, is that the music was incredible. I will never forget how I felt the first time I heard ‘You Will Know our Names’ play. It’s such a high energy song that to this day I play to help me get through any challenges that come my way as cheesy as that sounds.

Xenoblade was the kind of game that managed to capture your imagination and encouraged you to explore! The game was very story based but gave you just the right amount of freedom to prevent it from feeling too linear and that’s something I can give the game a lot of credit for. Just when it started to become the slightest bit repetitive, it threw a new twist at you often in the form of a new ability like the Monado visions. This simple gameplay mechanic of seeing the future and planning your moves to prevent it from happening made the already interesting combat that much more engaging.

Five years later and the thing that makes me really satisfied, is how much more popular the game and now series has become. Back in 2012, Xenoblade Chronicles was the definition of a sleeper hit. It was praised to death on the internet yet not many people I knew actually played it. I would often recommend it to my friends but unfortunately many were too busy with their Xbox 360s and PlayStation 3s to really care to “Dust off the Wii”. Thankfully through YouTube and eventually Smash Bros.,  Xenoblade would become a much better known title. If I mention Xenoblade today, I won’t get the same blank stares as I used to as people are much more familiar with the title. Prices for the original Wii version started skyrocketing quite a bit too for a while until Nintendo issued a reprint and more recently, released a New 3DS version. Personally, I prefer it on the Wii, but it’s nice to have the option to take the adventure on the go. Xenoblade Chronicles X would also follow and bring with it some cool ideas to expand on the groundwork laid by the first one, but it did leave fans wanting more . This is where Xenoblade Chronicles 2 will hopefully deliver. Unfortunately it does not seem to follow the narrative of X, but I do believe and hope that Monolith will continue to refine their engine and make something truly great and deliver an experience that even more people can enjoy!

Do any of you have fond memories of playing Xenoblade back when it was originally released? Please let us know in the comments.

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As far back as I can remember, I have always been a huge geek. While maybe not Grand Emperor of the Geeks, I have definitely been in the upper echelons – maybe some sort of duke or possibly even an earl. I was in the marching band, pep band and just good ol’ regular band. I founded a book club, ran the student store, was a mathlete, and eagerly joined the pit orchestra for every school musical that I could. And then there were the video games. When I wasn’t practicing, marching, studying, or being a kid/teenager, I was nearly obsessed with playing games.

I must admit that I played rather mainstream games for the first eighteen years of my life – with the sole exceptions being Earthbound and Snowboard Kids 2. I had very limited internet access, and getting to any kind of game store was always a day-long task, so I had to get my information from my friends. Don’t get me wrong – they led me to games that I still hold dear to this day. Without them, I never would have played Star Ocean: Till the End of Time, or Final Fantasy IX and X. They even made me fall in love with the Kingdom Hearts and Tales of series.

While I cannot possibly remember the exact moment that I fell in love with video gaming, I can, beyond a shadow of a doubt, tell you the moment I became the gamer that I am today. There is a very, very good chance that I would never have given a Shin Megami Tensei title more than a passing glance if it wasn’t very one very wise, very awesome friend. This fateful day began as simply as any other – fresh out of high school, hanging out with a friend, and a pocket full of my first paycheck. Out of games to play, we decided to stop in at the GameStop to see if there was anything worth picking up. After only a few moments of browsing, my friend practically squealed with delight and snagged a game off the shelf and held it as if it was made of pure gold. An immaculate copy of Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga I was clutched in her hand, but the $50 price tag attached to it nearly reduced her to tears. She informed me that she had been aching to get another copy, and had never been able to find it, but was unfortunately unable to shell out that much cash for a used copy of a game.

I will admit that I wasn’t terribly intrigued – after glancing over the cover art and skimming through the manual, I really wasn’t able to understand why she was so infatuated with the game. Sure, it looked interesting enough, but what game is that good? I’m still not sure exactly what caused me to slap down a full quarter of my paycheck for that game, but I have never once regretted it since. I wish I could say that I went home, and instantly popped the game in, and did not move for the next five days. The real story is that it went home with me, and lay sad, forgotten, and neglected on my bookshelf for nearly two weeks before I finally had the chance to play it. Shameful, I know, and had I known then what I know now, such a travesty would never have occurred. With a three day weekend ahead of me, I settled into my big comfy armchair, loaded the disk, and finally got my first taste of an Atlus game.

“Rend… slaughter… devour your enemies. There is no other way to survive. You cannot escape your hunger, warriors of Purgatory…” These words, spoken by a baleful purple eye resting in a circlet of nails, would forever change the way I viewed and played video games. Shivers ran down my spine, and I found myself leaning forward in my chair as the strangest opening of any game I had ever played unfolded before my eyes. It was unlike anything I had ever seen before. I actually replayed the opening a couple more times, and by the end of my weekend, the opening theme song would be burned into my brain and playing on an endless loop in my head for the next several weeks.

After the initial shock and awe wore off, I couldn’t start the game fast enough. And, once started, couldn’t seem to play it enough. For those of you who have not previously played the Digital Devil Saga games (and really, if you haven’t, I can’t urge you to do so strongly enough), the story opens up in a world known as the Junkyard, a dreary, dark, gray place constantly shrouded in rain (much like my beautiful city of Portland, Oregon), in which several tribes vie for dominance. Only once one tribe has managed to defeat all the others will they be allowed entrance to Nirvana. This is the way of the Junkyard, and the way it has always been for those who inhabit it. One day, a mysterious, egg-like object appears in the Junkyard, which attracts the attention of all the tribes. Unsure if it is a weapon of another tribe, all of them approach it with extreme caution – and when it opens, all hell breaks loose. Quite literally, in fact. Every living person within the Junkyard is caught by a strange beam of energy, that unleashes their inner demon. Everybody is transformed into a hideous, violent, and blood-thirsty demon, and carnage rains down over the dreary landscape. Once they manage to regain some control of their humanity, the story’s main characters, the Embryon tribe (composed of Serph, Argilla, Heat, Gale, and Cielo, mainly), find an angelic, sweet girl unconscious inside the opened egg.

The girl, Sera, is the key to getting into Nirvana. Only the tribe that can defeat (and devour) the leader of all the other tribes of the Junkyard will be allowed to ascend the immense Karma Temple (which rules over the entire Junkyard), where their accumulated karma combined with Sera’s presence will be allowed entrance to the paradise of Nirvana. It was a concept that I had never encountered before in any game that I had played – I had always been won over by the age-old formula of a world on the brink of destruction, where a hero emerges to defeat the big baddie, save the world, and restore piece. Here, though, was almost the opposite – there was no world to save. In fact, instead of saving this world, everybody inside of it was actively trying to escape it.

Faced with this intriguing storyline, I was only pulled in even deeper as the character’s behaviors, emotions, and memories were slowly revealed. Strangely, nobody seems to have any memory of being born, or of their lives prior to the events that the game opened with. There are no children in the Junkyard, no animals, no sunshine, and, in the beginning, there is almost no emotion. As though they are all newborns, Serph and his tribe gradually awaken to emotions, to ideas of having comrades, of friendship and love. Again, this was like nothing that I had ever experienced before – sure, I’d played games where characters had amnesia, or didn’t seem to have any personality whatsoever. But for me, this was on a whole new level. These people were fighting for their lives, all while trying to learn just what it was to be alive.

I couldn’t help but feel for them every step of their journey through the Junkyard. I watched as Heat battled against his fiery temper, and as cold, calculating, logical Gale begin to see honor, dignity, and friendship in comrades and enemies alike. I watched as Argilla fought her inner demons, her hunger, and developed the ability to feel sadness, compassion, and happiness. It was like watching children grow right before your eyes, and I had never felt so close, so interested, and so deeply invested in character development before. I felt as though I was sharing in their triumphs, as well as their despair. No game had ever managed to have me so thoroughly enthralled, so desperate to help them succeed in reaching their goals. No part of the game felt like a chore. Even climbing the seemingly never ending Karma Temple and solving its myriad puzzles and challenges wasn’t remotely tiresome.

And when I finally reached the end of the game, I had even more questions, even more mysteries. I watched the ending credits roll with something almost like sadness – I had beaten the game in only three days, and I didn’t want it to be over. I wanted more. I was addicted, and I could already almost feel the withdrawals setting in. I needed the second game, and I needed it immediately. Unfortunately for me, I wasn’t able to use the fancy interwebs to order a copy off of Amazon or eBay, and so I confined to searching through my local game stores for a physical copy. The second game never materialized, and to this day, I have never seen a physical copy in any store that I have ever been in.

Although denied the second half of what I had determined was the single greatest game I had ever played in my life at the time (with, perhaps, the exception of Earthbound, but really, that’s like comparing apples and station wagons), the experience sparked my interest in the offbeat games. I didn’t just stray off the beaten, mainstream path, I plunged headfirst through the thicket and brambles and started blundering through unknown territory with nothing but the name of Atlus to guide me. I began amassing my collection, managing to find copies of Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne, Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner, Jewel Summoners, and, most importantly to me, Persona 3.

Unfortunately, disaster would strike when I lost my job, and, in order to pay rent, had to sell all of my prized, beloved collection in order to pay my bills and survive. I’m ashamed to admit that after that, I lost a lot of interest in gaming for a few years. Perhaps it was depression over losing the games that I had painstakingly searched for, collected, cared for, and loved. Whatever the reason, I did not pick up another video game for nearly 3 years, when I met somebody who not only breathed life and energy back into my daily existence, but refueled and encouraged my love of video games.

Somehow, out of all the people that I could have met, I had the unbelievable luck of meeting an avid fan of niche video games, a fact we discovered after gushing over our mutual love of P3. Just as before, my insatiable need (some may call it obsessive, compulsive, or downright crazy) for Atlus games was rekindled by a Digital Devil Saga game, though this time, thanks to his sweet, amazing gesture, I finally had my hands on a copy of the second game in the series. He also opened my eyes to all the other developers and publishers that I had been so blind to. Not only did he make me fall in love with him, but he made me fall in love with NISA, Aksys, and XSEED. Our collection these days has grown from being formidable, to being borderline obscene, and I couldn’t love it more.

As ridiculously silly as it may sound, Atlus pushed my gaming in a direction it most certainly would have never gone on its own, and gave me the icebreaker that my painfully awkward self so desperately needed. While the Digital Devil Saga games are not at the absolute top of my list of favorite games (don’t get me wrong, they are still quite high on that list), they will forever hold an irreplaceable and special place in my heart, and they will never be forgotten.

The post Operation Rainfall Origins: Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga appeared first on oprainfall.

EDITOR’S NOTE: As per usual, beware of SPOILERS for this amazing game.

When I started playing video games, many years ago…when dinosaurs ruled the earth and NES and SNES were top of the line, a couple of traits defined me. First was that I preferred platformers to all other genres, since they had the best graphics and were easy to grasp and master. Second was that I always became invested in the main character, no matter how basic his backstory, whether he was an overalled plumber or a plucky blue robot. I sympathized with the good guy; I was young and innocent, and I saw things in black and white, with the Marios and Mega Men of the world standing on the side of absolute good, and Bowser and Dr. Wily representing absolute evil. But then, sometime in the mid-90s, a game came out which changed everything for me. That game was Demon’s Crest.

Demon’s Crest was released in 1994 by Capcom for the SNES. I didn’t actually buy it the year it was released, though. No, my first impressions of this strange new platformer were based off of Nintendo Power‘s coverage of the game. At the time, and for many years thereafter, I had a subscription to the now defunct magazine. This was years before the Internet revolutionized gaming with free FAQs and Youtube walkthroughs. In those days you played a game and beat it with no help whatsoever, unless of course you chipped in your precious allowance to buy a Official Guide, which I rarely did. I still remember opening up that month’s Nintendo Power, and being greeted by the horrifying visage of a red skinned, bat winged demon.

Yup. This scared the crap out of a younger me…

I was very squeamish at the time, being around 10 years old. And I might have closed the cover and thrown away the magazine forever, had I not seen who published the game. It was published by Capcom, a company who I loved at the time, since in the 90’s Capcom represented the industry standard in terms of graphics and gameplay, at least as far as I was concerned. Anyone who made Mega Man could do no wrong, so I decided to read more about the game.

Ah, the 90’s. When Earthworm Jim was King and Demon’s Crest was released. Good times…

Demon’s Crest was set in a teeming necropolis full of, you guessed it: demons and monsters. The magazine talked about Firebrand and his quest to find the 6 elemental Crests, wrested from his control by his nemesis, Phalanx. What was most interesting to me was that, although I hadn’t yet played the game, I knew Firebrand. Or, rather, I recognized him. He was better known as the red demon who stalks Arthur in Ghouls and Ghosts for the SNES, a constant thorn in his chivalrous side. In other words, I knew him as a minor villain, and overall bad guy. And this game let you play as him.

The magazine also had extensive maps of the various levels and pictures and portraits of the enemies, just the sort of eye candy I ate up back then and still crave today. Then the Nintendo Power ended, as it always seemed to do, with a cliffhanger, talking about extra levels and enemies you had to buy the game to discover. What caught my attention was that, according to the magazine, there were aspects of the game that were optional. You could easily beat the game without uncovering all it’s secrets, but then you wouldn’t get the best ending. This intrigued me. I was only used to games with linear plots and levels, never worrying about secret passages or hidden items. Demon’s Crest promised something more.

The Battle Rages On indeed…

Though my recall isn’t perfect, since this happened nearly 20 years ago, I’m pretty sure I read the rest of the magazine, carefully put it away in my Nintendo Power cabinet, and proceeded to forget about Firebrand and his quest for vengeance for the next couple of years. It wasn’t until I was walking through a Hollywood Video ( yes, I’m ancient ) and found Firebrand’s sneering visage staring back at me that I recalled reading about him in Nintendo Power. Something about this furious demon compelled me to find out more, so I rented the game. Then Firebrand changed my outlook on gaming forever.

One of the first things that occurred to me once I popped in the cartridge and turned on the power was “This is not a nice game”, as confirmed by the opening and game over screens. In the opening, you’re confronted by a wall of flames that every so slowly is chipped away by a darkening silhouette which opens its wings and stares at you with glowing eyes. That was pretty creepy, but the game over animation was terrifying. I was used to Mario falling off the screen to the tune of sad music, or Mega Man exploding into a bunch of colored dots. When Firebrand is defeated, he screams in agony and falls to his knees as his skin sloughs off his skeleton. This was NOT what I expected from a game, especially after years of playing all-ages platformers. Then I pressed start, and was struck by the somber nature of the narrative. And then I got attacked by a zombie dragon. For clarity, this is the very first fight in the game, a boss fight against a giant, angry dragon whom, upon defeat, gets decapitated.

You start the game off by decapitating this guy. Talk about intense!

The second thing that occurred to me was “This game has AWESOME music!” Used to the techno tunes of Mega Man and the beeps and boops of Mario, I thought that was all games had to offer. Then I heard music like this –

Here was haunting, gothic, downright creepy music – and I loved it. It perfectly set the tone for my transition from the gamer I was to the gamer I have become. My appreciation for Demon’s Crest was increased further by the awesome visuals. Everything was dark, edgy and beautiful. Most critically, everything and everyone in the world of Demon’s Crest was a monster. There were no princesses to save, no Robot Masters to thwart. No, in Demon’s Crest, you got to play as the villain in a world full of villains. After the 6 Crests fell to earth in the demon realm, and all the demons went to war in order to obtain their untold power, Firebrand went on a successful campaign of demonic genocide to gather all the Crests himself and achieve ultimate power. Granted, that power is stolen from him on the very cusp of victory by Phalanx, and you play the game as a weakened demon, but Firebrand was still responsible for the death and destruction of untold numbers of his own people.

Besides teaching me about moral ambiguity and how to love anti-heroes, Demon’s Crest evolved my gaming tastes in another key way – it introduced me to the notion of replay value. I already mentioned how the Nintendo Power hinted at hidden depths to the game, but my younger self had no idea how deep they were. Each level in the game had branching paths, being essentially two levels in one. But in order to unlock the secondary path, you had to find the right item or ability to progress. I clocked in many, many hours playing the game, hovering over tombstone lined graveyards, invading subterranean crypts and raiding every corner of the game to find hidden entrances and items. Still, despite all that time spent, I still got the worst ending on my first attempt. Watching the credits was, for once, a disappointment. I knew there was a better ending, Nintendo Power confirmed. I just had to earn it.

Unfortunately, rentals weren’t forever, and I had to give the game back to the video store before I could clock in more time to unlock everything. So, about a year later, when I saw Demon’s Crest for sale, I snagged it permanently. Owning the game made it possible for me to focus on uncovering every last secret in the game at my own pace, a task that I relished. What made this even more fun was discovering hidden Crests. The titular Crests each bestowed a different form and different abilities to Firebrand, as well as allowing him to access previously hidden or unreachable locations.

The upper right photo shows off Firebrand using the power of the Crest of Water.

My favorite Crest was the Crest of Air, which transformed Firebrand into a blue skinned pterodactyl looking creature and allowed a much more complex range of flight besides the standard hovering Firebrand was normally capable of. Another favorite was the Crest of Water, which turned Firebrand into a green, webbed merdemon, allowing him to not only swim, but allowing him access to watery depths that would otherwise burn his demonic hide. These are only two of the six Crests available in the game, and each added a lot to the experience. More importantly, it was vital to find each and every Crest, as well as all the hidden talismans, vellums, life containers and parts of the shattered Crest of Fire in order to unlock the best ending and true final boss.

I still vividly remember the excitement that grasped me once I found all the hidden items and faced Phalanx a second time. This music should give you an example of how epic that fight was –

Granted, this wasn’t my first time fighting Phalanx, but it was just as epic the second time around. What I didn’t anticipate was that, upon beating Phalanx with all the Crests and items, he transforms into a second, truly terrifying form.

Tough as the first Phalanx fight was, nothing prepared me for this form. You had to constantly hover over a sea of lava, grasping onto floating platforms and dodging energy balls and blasts, waiting for your chance to strike. To say this was a challenge was an understatement, yet this final battle paled in comparison to the true final battle.

After beating Phalanx’s second form, the game rolled the credits and then provided a password. Being a curious young lad, I immediately input the password and pressed start. At first, I thought nothing had changed, until I checked my inventory and noticed a new Crest, the Crest of Heaven, which allows Firebrand access to all the abilities found in the other Crests, as well as opening up the final level. That level housed the real final boss, the Dark Demon, a truly fierce battle that tempered my gaming abilities.

The Dark Demon was the toughest final boss I’ve ever fought in a platformer

A few key factors made this final fight so epic. First was that, unlike Phalanx, who was somewhat of a chatterbox, the Dark Demon fights you without a word spoken. You don’t know how or why he exists, all you know is that you have to destroy him to achieve ultimate victory. Secondly, the Dark Demon alternates, practically at whim, between two completely different forms. The first looks like some sort of Mardi Gras ensemble gone wrong, a giant multi-headed skeleton riding a chariot of bone. This is the only form you can hurt, and he never stays in it for long. Also, he is in constant movement, hovering around, firing various projectiles at you or, if you’re foolish enough to stand underneath him, he attacks with a waterfall of blood spilled from his chariot. The Dark Demon’s other form is some sort of invincible bat winged monstrosity who, besides attacking you with energy blasts, has a nasty tendency to make rocks fall from the ceiling and can turn any segment of the floor or wall into a patch of spikes, which keeps you from clinging to them as well as harming you. I spent more time fighting the Dark Demon than all the other boss fights in the game combined, and it took many attempts to put him to rest. I can’t even describe the feeling of accomplishment that rushed through me once I did so.

So in closing, Demon’s Crest is the game that made me the gamer I am today. It’s beautiful gothic imagery and music, as well as the moral ambiguity presented in it, truly changed my expectations of what a game should be. Coupled with the intense replay value and challenging boss fights, it was truly a unknown gem of the SNES. Games like this are why I still love old school, retro games as much as next gen masterpieces. In closing, I’ll let you enjoy a couple more of my favorite musical tracks from the game. Maybe they’ll convince you to hunt down this retro classic!

The post Operation Rainfall Origins : Demon’s Crest appeared first on oprainfall.

Update: This is an April Fools Joke for 2013.

When I first got my Wii, I was begging to get anything good on the system. Sure, I had Super Mario Galaxy, but I was leery of that Fire Emblem and Tales of Symphonia stuff. (What kind of title is that, anyway?) But that all changed in 2009 when I came across a title from little-known Japanese developer Starfish-SD called Saint.

For those who don’t know, Saint is a take on the classic Chinese novel Journey to the West (and possibly the best version ever, way better than that hack job manga/anime that Akira Toriyama came up with). You play as Son Goku as he travels around the world, meeting friends and taking on enemies.

There are a number of memorable missions in this game. One that comes to mind is saving Kuririn from falling down an endless well created as a trap by the evil Popo. Quite the epic battle.

And there are also the more humorous levels. One in particular involves finding all of Buruma’s panties. This leads to the hilariously drawn one-eyed banjo-playing redneck bandit named Yamucha.

And all of this culminates in a climactic final level, where you need to destroy a nuclear meteor. Get a high enough score throughout the game, and you’ll end up as the new Emperor of Japan.

Story aside, this game showed me so much about what a game could be. The music was a breath of fresh air in an industry that was feeling stale with predictable instrumentations and epic themes that felt trite and pointless. The gameplay took the shooter genre to a whole new level, bringing fresh and unique ideas to the table.

This is truly a game that opened my eyes to what gaming could truly be. If you’re someone who needs a shot of creativity in your gaming library, you can’t go wrong with Saint.

The post APRIL FOOLS 2013! Operation Rainfall Origins: Saint appeared first on oprainfall.

Warning: The following contains spoilers and should be read with this in mind.

Pokémon Colosseum – Availble only on Gamecube

When I started thinking about the game, the moment in my life I started getting passionate into games… well it was difficult. To pin-point the place you started, when you’ve been exposed to and been playing video games your whole life…  When I thought about it deeply and seriously, it is most likely that Pokémon Colosseum was the start of my gaming passion.

As a child, I was first introduced into gaming as…well…”just video games”. In fact, the first console I owned was a PlayStation. My sister and I enjoyed hours of Bomberman, Spyro and Crash Team Racing, all of which are fantastic games. I would put Crash Team racing up high on my favourite games list! Besides this, we also had neighbours who introduced us to games such as Odd world and Worms Armageddon, which we enjoyed watching. But I would say our Super Nintendo and Gameboy were where we had the most fun. But at this stage in my life, I just liked games because they were fun. I wasn’t seriously passionate.

During this time I came to love Pokémon the most, especially loving Pokémon Stadium. Having battles in 3D was mind blowing for me, and I instantly wanted my own N64, but sadly I never got one. I always craved the idea of playing Pokémon in this kind of…3D-open-battlefield style, like what Pokémon Stadium had, dreaming of being a Pokémon Trainer myself. I also loved how the Pokémon attacks were clearly shown, and it felt so much more real than that of the original games for Gameboy.  As I grew up, Pokémon Colosseum made its debut and I wanted nothing more to get my hands on it. As an Eevee and Eeveelution fan I wanted the game even more-so, because Espeon and Umbreon starred in the game.  And this is where my story begins…

Espeon and Umbreon. Your faithful companions

One day, we had a ‘market’ day at school where we were given money, and we also had to set up shops by cutting out items like food or TV’s, etc.  When it was my turn to buy and leave my stall to my friend, I came across a girl who I saw had bought Pokémon Colosseum. I instantly striked up a conversation with this girl, and eventually…invited myself over to her house. Of course, she was a bit surprised by me saying, “I’m coming over to play”, but she accepted my invitation. That girl…was none other than Oprainfall’s Head editor Charlotte Buckingham.

My adventure continues on the next page.

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Dragon Force was not the first game I ever played, nor was it the game that got me into my favorite genre of games. But it was the first game that I found myself playing for hours on end – losing track of time, forgetting to eat, putting off sleep, ignoring friends and schoolwork alike. If that’s not a defining game for a “hardcore gamer,” I don’t know what is.

I had been gaming for as long as I can remember. I owned an Atari 7800, neighborhood friends who had an NES allowed me to play Mario, and my brother at one point had a TurboGrafx-16 – which gave me access to more off the wall games. The first system I personally owned was a SEGA Genesis, which served my fanboy-ism for years to come, as afterward I went on to own a Game Gear, a Dreamcast and a Saturn, which to this day is my favorite console of all time.

Needless to say, I had a varied exposure to games and gaming up to that point, and developed a love of RPG’s, which was funny as the SEGA systems were not known at the time for that genre, since the big names like Squaresoft and Enix published mostly for other consoles. Not to say there were no good RPG’s, because there were; it was just a little more tricky to find them.

Since I didn’t own a PS1 at its height of popularity, I missed out on playing Final Fantasy VII myself; though I was able to watch as my friends who did own the console became engrossed. So I was elated to hear there was a PC port of the game so that I could finally sink my teeth into it. Being new to PC gaming, I was hesitant to spend the money on the port, as I wasn’t sure my computer was capable of playing it. So as a solution, my dad (who I have realized later in life did a lot of my video game scouting) found a local video store that happened to rent games – even PC games – and happened to have a copy. So we went and rented it to give it a go.

As I said, it was the early days of PC gaming, so I did not realize they only gave me the game disks and not the install disks. I was quite unhappy when I couldn’t even get the game to install so we headed back to the store to tell them it didn’t work. They gave me a free game rental to make up for it. At this time I wished I had a PS1 instead of a Saturn so I could play an RPG. My dad suggested a game he saw on the Saturn section titled Dragon Force. I looked at it and thought it wasn’t a typical turn based RPG but I didn’t have any other options so I took it.

On the way home, I browsed the manual to learn as much about the game as I could before I started playing it. When I started up the game, I couldn’t really make heads or tails as the style of game play seemed so foreign to me. But once I started to get the hang of it, I noticed more and more time slipping away into the game. Each time I turned the system on, I played it for longer and longer, without realizing how much time I had actually spent.

Who’s next to battle it out

Dragon Force is a title that few are familiar with, so I will do my best to explain its mechanics and appeal. Starting off, you have access to 6 out of 8 monarchs. The last two are only playable after you have a save file with a completed game. Each monarch starts with four generals that can be Knights, Priests, Shamans, Thieves, Samurai and several others, with their own strengths, weaknesses, and inherent abilities. Each monarch also starts on a different section of the world map, which can make for an easier or harder game depending on how many fronts you have to protect, as all the other monarchs will be against you for control of the map.

Battles are a very interesting thing, as your monarch and generals can engage in large scale epic fights as they control their army. Each officer can control up to 100 troops of various types ranging from soldiers, cavalry, archers, and the less traditional beastmen, zombies and dragons. They each have strong points and weaknesses against other troop types. The most common example is, dragons are strong against every troop type, but samurai can cut through them like a hot knife through butter. Officers themselves cannot move but with enough energy and MP they can use special attacks that can affect the enemy troops, officer or everyone.

Beastmen vs. Dragons

Battles take place all over the world map. Changes in terrain can affect certain troop types and can change the flow of battle. Where you thought you had the advantage in troop type, the terrain can flip the odds in your opponent’s favor. If a battle takes place in a castle, the level of the castle can add massive defense bonuses to the troops inside, making it difficult to lay siege to a high level castle. Strategy is a very fluid but key point of success.

The art style and music help to flesh out this fantasy world. The character sprites can be repetitive as most are just recolors of the base class, and troops all pretty much look the same except for, similarly, the recolors. The core story for each monarch is told though the use of still images and text, though even those are few and far between. There is a FMV sequence or two, but nothing remarkable or even competitive for the era. However, the music is quite amazing – each monarch has their own unique theme which admittedly can become monotonous – but the battle theme changes depending on the location of the battle, which is the bulk of the game play, so there is some variation.

The story is a bit difficult to describe as it is slightly different depending on the monarch you choose. It then becomes their focus as well as gives you their back story relating to this world. The two un-lockable monarchs have a drastically different story, as they have insight as to whats really going on and the things you learn in a first play-through. The ending is the same no matter who you choose so there is no requirement for multiple play-throughs to obtain a specific ending.

Multiple play-throughs are surprisingly fun, as the number of variables in stats and the somewhat unpredictable nature of the AI makes no two games the same. There is always change, as in one game it’s possible your enemies may recruit a powerful general, making it hard to take over their primary defenses, or the exact opposite can occur, and you can gain access to powerful troop types early on and make short work of your enemies. So while there is no story related aspect that prompts playing the game over and over again as seen in some modern titles for a specific ending or scene, the game encourages playing again and again for a unique game experience.

That’s why it has stuck with me for all these years – because no matter how many times I play it, I can learn a new strategy, or get a new general, or find something that I just didn’t know before. Every year I will pick it up and play it again, and each time it feels like I have played it again for the first time. The only difference is that each time I lose fewer and fewer battles, but they are by no means easier.

There was a sequel released in Japan which sadly never saw an English release. There was also a PS2 remake made as a part of the SEGA classics collection that was given new artwork for the character portraits and the stills showing the story sections, which also never had an English release. I do hope that given the recent re-release of Nights into Dreams and Guardian Heroes that at least the PS2 remake could surface to allow modern gamers a chance to explore that unique tactical experience, as it would be a shame to lose this to the annals of history.

Poster promo

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There have been many games that have passed through my hands over the 30 some years I have been gaming. Some stand out more than others, as is the case with everyone.  I cannot easily count the number of games I have finished. When I begin to think about the games that stand out most, Xenogears is the first one that comes to mind. It came along during the great JRPG boom of the PSone era; it had a lot of competition. One would think that it would be eclipsed by the juggernaut that is Final Fantasy 7, and I am sure some people feel that way. There are, to me, several reasons why I feel this game goes above and beyond that in depth and scope. I will get into all of those details shortly.

First off a little background on Xenogears: few people know that the project was originally pitched to be Final Fantasy 7. It was decided that it was too dark and complicated for a Final Fantasy game, but the team was given a green light to pursue it as a new project. (Boy, if only they did that these days, right?) At this point Takahashi-san and his wife Soraya Saga began to write a screenplay complete with full dialogue and cut scenes. The rest is history.

When I first learned about the game, it was in the imports section of EGM magazine. They showed some screens of the beautiful anime style cutscenes and giant mechs doing battle. I was stoked right off the bat. I was just really starting to get into anime in those days, and hey, what guy doesn’t love giant robot battles? When I read the piece further, they said the game would likely not be localized due to highly religious overtones, which in those days were a big deal. I am so thankful that Square and Sony took the chance to bring this over here, or we would have missed out on one of the greatest JRPGS of all time.

In my mind what makes a great game is the story. With a good story and characters to build on you just really want to invest your time in it to see how it all comes out. This is especially true in RPGs. If you have no attachment to the characters, then the rest of the game is most likely going to be a painful experience. Xenogears not only delivers one of the most in depth, epic stories in gaming history, but it offers some of the most memorable characters as well. Until I played this game I had no idea how deep a story could go in a video game. Some would call the massively complicated story convoluted. To a point, I can agree with that, you have to do a little extra research to fill in all of the details left out in the game. In the end it will be well worth your time. Here, you can find the Xenogears Perfect Works guide book. Reading this will help you fill a ton of the story gaps and questions, but be warned: this is intended for people who have finished the game. If you haven’t finished the game and do not wish to be spoiled, I strongly suggest finishing before taking a look at it. Takahashi-san had hoped to do a prequel and a sequel to this as well, but unfortunately that never panned out. This was the first of his two unfinished masterpieces.

What makes this story unique are the issues that it deals with such as religion, love, loss, facing one’s own demons, and the feeling of being alone. These are deep issues which, at the time of its release, were not really touched on in gaming a whole lot. Yes, Final Fantasy 7 did deal with some of these as well, but in my opinion, it wasn’t in the depth that Xenogears does. Religion was something gaming did not dare touch on back then. This still shows in translation where lots of religious names have been misspelled on purpose to keep the faithful from not blowing a gasket at a story based around some of the ideology or even to question some of it. Click here for a full list of changes and purposeful misspellings. I found this link very informative.

Aside from the religious tones helping it along, this was one of the first games that I can say made me feel for the characters. They are so well written that you feel like you know these people after a while. The banter between them helps this along tremendously. This is definitely what separates a mediocre RPG from a epic one: when you are so caught up in the characters and the story that you tend to easily become completely focused on the game, ignoring your other surroundings.

The gameplay is just as immersive as the story. The combat system of this game is one of the best that has ever been designed. You will engage in combat on foot and in the giant mecha called Gears. On foot the game uses an AP system in which attacks use AP depending on the button your press. Pressing a certain combination of buttons will grant you a combo finisher for bigger damage. By trying out different combination you will learn more finishing moves. AP can also be stored each round then unleashed in a plethora of finisher one right after another to dispatch bigger foes. This provides a strategy to each battle as some finishers will also have elemental properties as well as, always in a RPG, hit the enemies weakness for bigger damage. When fighting in Gears the AP system is replaced with a Fuel system. It works in basically the same way but you will have to be careful as your fuel does not replenish after each battle. So when in a bigger dungeon you will need to try to conserve as needed.

What is an RPG without great music? Xenogears has some of the greatest music in gaming history, or so I think anyways. The fully orchestral sound track is just as epic as the story it accompanies. Composer Yasunori Mitsuda delivers on every level. Each track is masterfully crafted to add to the games atmosphere and emotion. I cannot hear A Faraway Promise to this day without tearing up a little bit. That is the mark of a good OST: when you hear a song from it and the emotion of the game comes flooding back to you. Not to spoil anything but the game’s ending track is one of the most fitting ending themes I can think of… truly epic.

Xenogears showed me a great number of things that could be accomplished in games as a medium. With its depth in story, characters, and the fact it was not afraid to delve into controversial issues, it showed that gaming was growing up. It made me question not only the way people look at faith and other philosophical issue but, in some ways, the way I look at life in general. It is not only one of my favorite games of all time but it made me a fan of the Xenosaga series in general which eventually lead me here to Oprainfall, where I met some of the greatest friends I have ever had. I have much to thank Xenogears for. I look very much forward to Takahashi-san’s next project. I know it will be just as epic and thought provoking.

Source for all information in this article: Study Guide for Tetsuya Takahashi’s Xenoverse. Everything you ever wanted to know about Xenogears or Xenosaga can be found there, if you’re curious. One of the best resource sites of all!

The post Oprainfall Origins: Xenogears appeared first on oprainfall.

WARNING: This article contains spoilers, and opinions. Majora’s Mask is something of a mystery to players and there are a myriad of theories out there. Here I’ll discuss some of my own interpretations without offering them as fact.

When the opportunity came up to select my Origins title there was only one game it could be. Without hesitation I elected to write about The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask. I’m a giant Legend of Zelda nerd and Majora’s Mask is my favorite game. I enjoyed it as a kid who didn’t even really know what the heck she was doing, and I continued to enjoy it as I grew older. It’s a game I appreciate more with every play through. There is so much I love about this game, it’s hard to pick which things are the most important and which things will probably be left out due to my tendency to go on about this game.

For those of you poor people who know nothing of Majora’s Mask (for shame!) it takes place directly after Ocarina of Time, in a land known as Termina. Link has left Hyrule to search for his beloved and in no way annoying friend Navi. He’s ambushed in the woods, his horse and ocarina stolen, and turned into a Deku Scrub. Things are looking pretty bad before he gets to Clock Town and finds out the moon is going to crash into the earth and destroy it something fierce in three days. At that point things look a lot worse, and Link sets off on a quest to defeat the evil trapping the four guardian Giants of Termina, so they can stop the moon. This synopsis brings us to the first thing I’d like to talk about. The Moon.

The Moon
The Moon of Majora’s Mask… tends to leave quite an impression on people. Its fierce expression is both creepy, constipated and fear-inducing. I must’ve been some sort of weirdo kid, because when I first played Majora’s Mask (at the tender age of 9) I wasn’t frightened of the Moon. Okay, maybe I was at first, but since I was really bad at dungeons I tended to play on my brother’s file (it was his game, his system) which was farther along and just do the side quests. So much side questing. One of the side quests is an item trading one, and the first item you need is the Moon’s Tear. To this day I don’t know for sure why the Moon cried. Could it have been the constipation? Is he sad because the impact will destroy him as well? Perhaps. But I always thought the Moon was just a nice guy, who didn’t want to destroy the earth, but was unable to fight the evil of Majora’s mask. As he is slowly pulled to the earth, forced into becoming a killer on a massive scale, he sheds a single tear for those whose lives he will take. Poor guy. Also, the Moon is the only character I know that stores a field in his mouth.

Also there are children here.

The Music
As with most Zelda games Majora’s Mask boasts a variety of music and sound effects ranging from beautiful to silly, with some nightmarish throwbacks to Ocarina of Time. In an attempt to not go overboard, I’ve picked my top two songs to cover in a bit more detail. I was originally going to try for three, but these two songs alone gave me plenty to say.

First and foremost my favorite song from the game. Even as a kid, this song struck a chord, easily becoming my favorite. The first time I heard this song as a kid without a clue its beauty took my breath away, and even today despite all the times I’ve listened to it I’m still awestruck. This song I hold as the best in Majora’s Mask is none other than the Oath to Order.

100 steps north, 100 steps south, 100 steps east, 100 steps west. If you have need, call us in a loud voice by declaring something such as, ‘The mountain blizzard has trapped us.’ Or ‘The ocean is about to swallow us.’ Your cries shall carry to us…

Coming in as my second favorite is the polar opposite of Oath to Order. This song holds no hope, instead encompassing the hopelessness of impending death. Time is up, all there is left to do is wait as the Final Hours tick away.

The Happy Mask Salesman is one of my favorite characters. Maybe. I see him as a sort of mystical figure of protection, not unlike the the four Giants.

Masks
It’s no surprise that masks are a huge part of Majora’s Mask. There are 24 collectible masks, not counting the remains of the four dungeon bosses (which are not wearable) and each mask has its own story and abilities. There’s a mask for everyone! There’s even a mask for people who hate Link (if that’s even possible), the Bomb mask. Like most masks, it affixes to one’s face. Unlike most masks, its sole purpose is to explode. On your face. Not really something I want for myself, but Link just walks it off. This mask is only really useful until you get bombs, or right after resetting time before you collect any, and it’s not the only mask like that.

There are a number of masks with limited usefulness (like the Mask of Scents which can sniff out truffles) but even some of these masks are just fun to use and all of them are fun to collect because you get to explore this world of Termina and really meet its inhabitants. Every mask is tied to a character, and each character has his or her own story to tell. Link can meet up with the spirit of a dead dancer who regrets not teaching his best moves to an apprentice. If Link can soothe his spirit he will earn Kamaro’s Mask. Kamaro’s Mask will make Link dance (and if he shows his moves to two specific ladies they bow down and call him “Master”). There’s even one mask that has the sole purpose of being used to get another mask, but even that has a story to it. The Bremen Mask. If you hold B while wearing the Bremen Mask Link will pull out his ocarina and march as he plays this really catchy tune. Using this song, Link can age chicks to chickens at Romani Ranch, and in gratitude their owner gives him the Bunny Hood! Link, in an adorable little Bunny Hood. The Bunny Hood is one of my favorite masks. All it does is let Link run faster, but in a game where time is of the essence, this is more important than you might think. All in all, there are far too many masks for me to cover each in detail, and discovering the story behind each one for the first time is one of the highlights of playing Majora’s Mask as it really brings Termina to life.

Anju and Kafei
One such story, the story of Anju and Kafei, is… not the best romance in video game history, but definitely memorable. Anju and Kafei were to be wed, before Kafei suddenly disappears. If you speak with Kafei’s mom she mistakes Link for a detective and sends him out to locate her son. Thus begins the longest, most annoying yet rewarding side quest in the entire game. To complete this quest (without a guide) requires intimate knowledge of the characters and their schedules. If you manage to meet everyone at the right time and do everything perfectly you can find Kafei, help him retrieve the Sun’s Mask (his wedding mask, which is traditionally required for weddings in Termina) from the lair of the thief Sakon and reunite him with Anju, one minute before the Moon is to crash into the earth. Doing this will net you the Couple’s Mask. If you want to get the Fierce Deity Mask though, you need to do most of the quest over again, only to change one detail (which causes you to miss the opening of Sakon’s Lair and fail to retrieve the Sun’s Mask) to get yet another mask, the Postman’s Hat. I’ve had this quest screw me over so many times, it’s not even funny. Well, maybe a little.

Once, I made it all the way to the end and my system froze. No big deal, I started over at the Dawn of the First Day and redid everything. I got to just about the same spot when my cat decided the system needed to be sniffed. His little kitty cat nose almost made contact with the cartridge and… my system froze. Okay, by that point I was a little ticked off. I did it again, but screwed up all on my own by not solving the puzzle fast enough. One tiny mistake can force you to go back to the beginning, but even doing everything right yields only bittersweet results.

Regardless of what you do, the story ends sadly. You can do everything right, and reunite Anju and Kafei… so they can be together when they get crushed by the Moon a minute later. If you do nothing at all, the two are not reunited, Anju loses her faith in Kafei and skips town, and Kafei feels like a hopeless failure. If you give Anju the Pendant of Memories she’ll recall Kafei’s steadfast love and wait for him through her final moment… but if you don’t complete the quest she will wait in vain, alone in her room believing to the bitter end in a man who won’t show up.
There’s quite a bit more to Majora’s Mask to talk of that I can’t ramble on about right now. More music worth mentioning, more masks, some of the darker themes involved such as the inevitability of death and some of the lighter themes like faith and friendship.  Majora’s Mask also boasts one of the better companions in the series with Tatl and her character arc. Not to mention the myriad of interesting characters such as the Bombers and the Igos du Ikana. Besides being chock full of wonderful characters, thought-provoking themes, rather difficult dungeons and wonderful music the game itself is just plain fun. That’s what you’d expect from a Zelda game, right? One thing I think gets overlooked too easily is the swimming. I have never played a game that did swimming as perfectly as Majora’s Mask when Link is wearing the Zora Mask. The game is not without quirks, though. The Hand in the Toilet. The one thing that truly terrified me as a kid, the Aliens on Romani Ranch. Don Gero’s Mask (which lets you conduct the Frog Choir). And let’s not forget… dancing redeads.

To anyone interested (with a bit of time to kill) this article is a very interesting read. It’s been around for a while, but then again so has Majora’s Mask.

So, what about you guys? To those of you who have played Majora’s Mask, which mask is your favorite? To those who haven’t played it, why not? What’s wrong with you?! Let me know in the comments below!

The post oprainfall Origins: The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask appeared first on oprainfall.

EDITOR’S NOTE: This article is a discussion of Valkyrie Profile, and thus contains SPOILERS for the game. Please read with that in mind.

When it came time to decide on what game to pick for my Oprainfall Origins piece, there were a lot of games that I could have picked from.  I was initially introduced to JRPGs, the genre that would define my gaming habits for a large portion of my life, through Dragon Warrior, which my brother and I received as part of the Nintendo Power promotion.  From there, I moved on to Crystalis, the Final Fantasy series, Secret of Mana, and Chrono Trigger.  With the help of a local video rental, I also dabbled a bit in lesser known titles like Ys III and Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen.

These were the sorts of games that defined my adolescence.  I had even initially thought about focusing this article on Chrono Trigger.  But on second thought, that wouldn’t have been the right choice.  No, the game I consider my “origin,” isn’t something I played in my childhood or my teen years.  It’s not even something I played when I was a college student, though it was new at the time.  It wasn’t until years later, after I had graduated and was lost somewhere in the haze between life as a student and life as a responsible adult, that I finally had the opportunity.  I had told a friend about this game that I had seen before and wanted to try for myself, and it turned out that she had actually received a copy of the game as a gift but never even had the interest to unseal it.  So she gave it to me.

That game was Valkyrie Profile.

How Do I Play It?

A hybrid of turn-based RPG and 2D platformer, I had never played anything like it before and very few like it since.  The battle system, which tasks the player more with learning powerful button combinations than selecting commands from a list, is at once easy to pick up and mash, but required actual practice to understand and master.  Each party member is linked to a face button on the controller, and simply pressing a button causes the assigned character to attack.  With the right party, it’s possible to, say, launch an enemy in the air, stick him with arrows while airborne, and then continue the assault as he falls to the ground.

The dungeons, multi-layered 2D environments filled with enemies, traps, and puzzles, are diverse, interesting, and in the later portions of the game, inventive and occasionally truly perplexing.  Doors in the foreground and background lead to different layers, creating large, complex labyrinths.  And the game’s later dungeons can be downright devious in the way they’re laid out.  They’re unlike any RPG dungeon I had seen before.

Noble Einherjar

Each and every one of the einherjar have stories worth telling.

But while the gameplay is certainly an important part of why I enjoy the game, it’s not the most important.  Not by a long shot.  More than anything, when all was said and done and the credits had rolled, what I came away with was an appreciation for the game’s world and its numerous characters.

Lenneth, the game’s protagonist, is a valkyrie of Asgard, who at the start of the game is informed by Odin, lord of the Aesir, that Ragnarok, the end of the world, is on its way.  It is Lenneth’s job as valkyrie to travel to the human world of Midgard and recruit einherjar, the souls of deceased warriors, so that they may fight for Odin in the final battle against Surt, ruler of the Vanir and the frost giants of Jotunheim.  It is also a task that Lenneth only has a set amount of time to complete.  Unlike other games that state that the end of the world is coming, but still grant the player infinite time to prepare for the final battle, Valkyrie Profile has a time limit; each chapter lasts a set number of turns, and each time the player visits a town, dungeon, or similar location, precious time is used up.

Further complicating Lenneth’s job are the requests Odin and Freya make of her for souls with specific skills at the start of each chapter to be delivered before the end.  Lenneth must properly train her einherjar by taking them into battle, making sure that they’re well equipped and that they have the skills required, and then send them to Asgard so that they may begin their work.  Succeeding in her job grants her extra rewards from Odin for a job well done.

Each of the game’s einherjar is introduced in the waning moments of their lives.  Whether it be a cowardly young archer that meets death on the battlefield, a group of mercenaries that gradually lose their numbers with one tragedy after another, or a petty thief who simply runs out of what little luck he had, each has their own story to tell, often filled with tragedy, sometimes mixed with hope.  But the one thing that none could avoid regardless of their status and upbringing, is mortality.  They are all humans with their own dreams and desires, some who have had the fortune to live longer than others, but in the end find themselves in the same place.  Facing a valkyrie that puzzles over their very nature while asking that they come with her to Valhalla.

The True Story

That is, if Lenneth chooses to do her job.  If the player so wishes, she can slack and avoid sending any einherjar at all, though failing to do her job will eventually result in Odin and Freya deeming Lenneth to be too much trouble, resulting in the worst of the game’s multiple endings.  To get to the end, that is, a proper end, Lenneth must do her job, and do it well, so that she can take part in the final battle against Surt.

…Or not.

For me, there is only one true way to play Valkyrie Profile.  And that way doesn’t involve fighting Surt at all.  It is also the only way to experience the true story of the game, and to understand Lenneth for who and what she actually is.  While defeating Surt and winning the day for Odin may be all well and good, for Lenneth, there is always something missing.

But as important as the einherjar are, Platina is the game’s greatest and most tragic mystery.

In order to understand what that something is, one must go back to the start of the game; to the prologue set in Midgard.  This little bit of story tells the tale of Platina, a beautiful young girl forced to live a wretched life with her abusive parents, naïve to the danger that she faces.  Late at night, she’s drawn to her window by Lucian, her only friend in the village, who informs her that her parents have agreed to sell her into slavery.  She agrees to run away with him, but as they dash off into the wilderness, far from their village, they stumble upon a meadow of weeping lilies; flowers with a pollen so toxic that breathing in even a little means a quick death.  And it is there that Platina dies in Lucian’s arms, the victim of a short, tragic life.

Platina is but the first of numerous humans we meet over the course of the game as they meet their demises, or prepare for the inevitable.  Yet Platina isn’t an einherjar; her death comes years before Lenneth is asked to take on her assignment.  But Lucian, the boy that tried to save her, only to unwittingly lead her to her death, is one such person.  As an adult, he lives the life of a poor mercenary, ultimately dying an ignominious death like so many others.  And it is in death he meets Lenneth, but he also sees something more; something strangely familiar.  Lenneth eventually parts ways with Lucian, allowing him the unusual honor of a long good-bye, and then sends him to Valhalla.

Eventually, Lucian, who misses Lenneth (and also suspects a certain connection that you may be suspecting yourself at this point), is offered by Loki the chance to contact her via the water mirror; one of Odin’s prized artifacts.  Lenneth is upset that Lucian would sneak behind Odin’s back to do such a thing, but still takes his gift; a single earring.  Lucian also tells her that she should know where to find its match.  But as the communication ends, Loki turns on and kills him.  The trickster god had merely set Lucian up as a scapegoat for the theft he had intended to commit all along.

This is a lot of story recap.  It’s also very truncated.  I’m sorry for that, but this background is necessary to really understand the story as I came to understand it.  To see the whole story and to understand Lenneth requires the player to complete a labyrinthine series of requirements.  It’s an incredible amount of work that in all honesty most people would need a guide in order to accomplish.  (Disclosure:  I used one.)

But the long story short is that at the end of chapter eight, the final chapter before the endgame, the player can visit the Weeping Lily Meadow; the very same meadow from the prologue.  And if all of the requirements have been met, Lenneth will find a grave, and on that grave, an earring.  And when she puts it on, her world comes crashing down around her.  Lost memories are found.  Memories of before she had awakened, when she had been temporarily reborn as the human girl Platina.

For Odin and Freya, this was merely to serve the purpose of Lenneth growing closer to humans so that she would be more adept at collecting einherjar.  They had never intended for Lenneth to remember anything of her human life, and they try to stop her.  They force her soul from the valkyrie body and replace her with her more devoted, malevolent sister, but the einherjar fight back, and through the efforts of an otherwise evil, perverse necromancer that temporarily keeps Lenneth soul in the husk of an elven child, her body is returned and she’s made whole once more.

A vampire lord, a necromancer, and two einherjar team up to take the valkyrie’s body back.

Lenneth returns to Asgard, which is now a total wreck; Loki has used the power of the artifact he stole, the Dragon Orb, to kill Odin, and stands poised to bring the world to an end himself.  But at this point, Lenneth can’t bring herself to care for Odin, or for Freya as she weeps over him.  To them, she was nothing more than a puppet.  What she wants more than anything is Loki’s head, knowing that she can never forgive herself for allowing what happened to Lucian; the only being in the entire universe that truly cared for her in any form.

The game’s finale, in which Lenneth is rewarded with all she could ever really want, is short, but poignant.  In the end, all of the turmoil that she endured, both as the valkyrie and as the young girl, is worth it.  And the moment her desires are fully realized just before the credits begin to roll stands among my favorite moments in video games.  So much is said with so little, and nothing more need be said.

Actually, my words, for as many as I’ve wasted here, simply can’t do the ending justice.  But someone out there was good enough to post a ninety-minute Youtube video, starting from the moment Lenneth finds the earring:

There’s so much about it that I didn’t even touch upon that I could go on about, but that could probably fill an entirely separate article on its own.  You should watch this if you have the time.

Tying It All Together

Playing Valkyrie Profile was part of my introduction to what some might qualify as “true” adulthood.  It’s one thing to struggle with Dragon Warrior at age nine.  It’s another to have my creativity and imagination shaped by games like Final Fantasy VI or Chrono Trigger in my early and mid-teens.  Or to get emotional over Aerith’s death while on the cusp of graduating high school and starting college.

In terms of gaming, these are all important moments, though some have had a greater impact on my life than others.  But Valkyrie Profile was the first game to really hit me in such a way as an adult; as someone with responsibilities that go beyond doing homework and studying for exams.  It was the time of my life in which I seriously started to ponder the morbid concepts of death and its finality.

Death is a constant in Valkyrie Profile.  The often violent ways that the einherjar meet their ends and the way that Platina dies before she’s given any reason to enjoy life are but some of the ways in which it rears its head.  It is a game that in a way says that the time we have is time to be treasured.  They were sobering concepts in my early twenties, a time when I was still at least somewhat ignorant of the fact that I’m not immortal.  I’m in my early thirties now, and those realizations only become reinforced with age.  I’m still not what most people would call old, but I’m not getting any younger, either.

However, it’s not just the game’s pondering of death that I found so potent.  It’s Lenneth herself; the way that she experiences the human world with seemingly little sympathy for their mortal plights and grows to become someone that cares for all of Midgard’s mortals.  The way that she experiences and recovers from her ultimate betrayal, and the way that she makes up for her biggest mistakes, makes for a compelling character arc; one that requires the player’s effort in order to hunt out and experience.  She starts her journey as Odin’s loyal soldier, but her connection to humanity eventually allows her to be her own person and to pursue her own goals; goals that ultimately benefit everyone but those that toyed with her.

Lenneth can only find her happiness after being allowed to remember who she once was.

It’s in these ways that I found Valkyrie Profile so affecting.  Life comes in all shapes and sizes, and sometimes it doesn’t last as long as we’d like.  But there are those triumphs that we can strive for, hopes and dreams that make life worth living, even when we aren’t always able to have what we desire.  These are ideas that are easy to lose touch with as years go by, which is why this game serves as such a great reminder.  And maybe, just maybe, when all is said and done, there’s a valkyrie at the end of the road, ready to grant us our rewards.

The post Oprainfall Origins: Valkyrie Profile appeared first on oprainfall.

Warning: This article will contain multiple spoilers for Sacred Stones and Blazing Sword. Read with that in mind.

Why Sacred Stones?

When I first began thinking of a game to write about for Operation Rainfall Origins, several games popped into my head.  Namely, Bastion, Ragnarok Online, Harvest Moon, and Sacred Stones.  I pondered the question for a while, making “final decisions” about which game I would write about and then backing out, thinking of all the good times I’d had with each game.  But when I kept coming back to Sacred Stones, I realized it was the right choice.

Our lovely chief editor, Jonathan Higgins, mentioned that I’d be able to change my choice, but once I had decided I knew deep down that Sacred Stones really was THE game, the one that had sucked me away from the world of anime and turned me into the gamer I am today.

How It All Began…

I was first introduced to Sacred Stones the same way I came to know most of these games.  One of my close friends had a Gameboy Advance, and every so often she’d lend it to me, giving me a chance to try out the many games in her collection.

Oh, the nostalgia.

Pokémon Crystal and Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town were the first two games I came to know this way, and I loved them both.  But it was Sacred Stones that really pushed me to buy a Gameboy SP of my own.  My very first playthrough of the game was fairly awful – I actually never finished, using Seth all the time (which was a giant mistake…ah, those days of exp-stealing ignorance) and getting stuck on Eirika’s route on the Scorched Sand chapter.  I know, but hey, cut me some slack – I was 12!

I thought you were so cool, but you were just an Oifey…

After beginning a new save file out of frustration, I chose Ephraim’s route instead, and took care to use Seth sparingly. I quickly developed a bond with my favorite characters, especially with Vanessa, Lute, Forde, and Ewan.  As an early riser since childhood, my parents encouraged this “good habit”, letting me do whatever I wanted with the extra two to three hours before school started that I gained by waking up early.  And so I started every morning with a chapter of Fire Emblem.

When I had extra time, I would squeeze in more chapters – they were short enough to keep me going, “Just one more!” and find myself playing into the wee hours of the night.  I finished the second playthrough of Sacred Stones relatively quickly, and it went much better, as I learned to take advantage of arenas and the Tower of Valni.

Since then, the Fire Emblem series has always held a special place in my heart.  Upon playing Fire Emblem: The Blazing Sword, I cried when Ninian “died”, I was fascinated by the morphs, and I loved the replay value – so many different characters and support conversations to explore.  However, Sacred Stones was the very first Fire Emblem game I had ever played, and as such, has always been my favorite of the lot.

Many tears were shed that day.

At this point, my Ragnarok Online addiction coupled with my insane club schedule had led my grades to drop, so I set Sacred Stones aside for a while.  A few years passed, and after my academics had stabilized somewhat, I picked it back up again.

The Third Playthrough

Playing Eirika’s route again this time, I made it through successfully and used a different set of characters from before – I loved getting to know all the different characters and their personalities.  Also, I loved having the option of choosing between the two routes – though I did find it a little bit sad how the route you didn’t choose was always bound to end in disaster.  The many characters of the Fire Emblem games gave them infinite replay value for me, and the graphics and animations were always wonderful.   The animations for the critical hits were even cooler, and I got chills every time I recognized the starting sequence for a critical.

Joshua, I wish I could be as lucky as you…

I wasn’t initially a fan of the music though – I’d gotten used to the lush orchestrals of Nobuo Uematsu and Harry Gregson-Williams, and the synthesized music seemed overly cheesy to me.  But over time, I grew to love it.  Whenever I play Brawl and hear Fire Emblem’s main theme on the Castle Siege stage, I always experience a rush of nostalgia and some sort of strange patriotic pride for a country that doesn’t exist.   Phew…after listening to that, I feel impelled to grab a sword and march for freedom and hope right now!

Classes, Character Convos, and Cosplay

Classes made the game even more interesting – I liked how I could choose whether or not Amelia would be a paladin or a knight, and determine whether or not to make Ewan into a Druid (I’m guilty of doing this every single time).  I liked how the Pegasus knights could go where the cavaliers could not, and how certain classes were better suited for rescuing other characters. The costumes for each character and class provided loads of material for my cosplay-obsessed mind – I’ve been hoping to dress up as Eirika someday (blue hair is awesome!), and I might go to a convention as a generic shaman soon.

Another unique aspect of the Fire Emblem games that I enjoyed were the support conversations.  Each time I’ve played through – six times and counting – I’ve paired different characters together, testing out the bonuses, looking at how relationships formed, finding out more about each character’s personality and past.  The small support conversations gave the player a framework for a character’s background which he could then use his imagination to build on.  …And that was how I became an active participant in Fire Emblem’s fanfiction community.

I’ll be the first to admit it, I like to read fanfiction.

Wait, People Stay Dead and Weapons can Break?

One more thing I liked about Fire Emblem was the harsh finality of death.  I know, I know, that sounds incredibly morbid of me to say.  But after playing Pokémon (Oh, just let them faint, you can always take them to a Pokécenter later) and Final Fantasy (If a character dies, just wait til the next save point!), I liked how death in Fire Emblem was final.  It made me treat my characters with more caution – knowing that one wrong move could result in a necessary replay of that chapter (I never moved on if a character died, save for that very first playthrough where Ross died and I forgot to recruit Amelia – yeah, let’s not talk about that again, I was young and silly).  The role of death in Fire Emblem just made the game that much more realistic to me – no resurrections, no 1-ups, no phoenix downs.

Adding to the realism factor, weapons can and will break, your characters can only carry so many items, and flying units are especially susceptible to arrows.  Even though I have failed many a chapter due to hasty placement of a pegasus knight coupled with an enemy archer’s attack, I liked the challenge of keeping all the different variables in my head while making my moves – what weapons are the enemies carrying?  How many more times can I use this weapon?  What kind of magic will that druid be using?  How many hits does that ballista have left?  It kept me on my toes, and I loved it.  I almost felt like a real war general at times, silly as it may sound.

The Tragic Antagonist

Have you ever noticed?  The main antagonists of Fire Emblem are usually never truly evil.  Nergal, whose tragic love for his beloved and determination to save her caused him to study dark magic, which eventually warped him to forget his original goals and his own children.  Lyon, who in trying to save his country brings forth a historic demon who surpasses all known evils.  Zephiel, the kindhearted, gentle little boy warped by his fathers’ murderous intentions.  Each one was initially good at heart – only to be corrupted by some evil force or led astray from his original goals.  I liked being able to sympathize with the main antagonist and not just battling against a faceless drone of pure evil.

Lyon.  Lyon.  What are you doing.  Lyon STAHP. STAHP IT.

All in all, I fell in love with Fire Emblem’s storylines, versatility, characters, classes, strategy-based gameplay, graphics, animations….the list goes on and on.

It’s been a real trip down memory lane writing this article, and now I think it’s time for me to start another long overdue replay of Sacred Stones.  That’s all for now, folks!

The post Operation Rainfall Origins: Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones appeared first on oprainfall.

Editor’s Note: This article contains SPOILERS pertaining to Okami’s bosses and plot. Read with that in mind.

If I was the same gamer I was five years ago, I wouldn’t be here at Oprainfall, much less writing this article.

Back then, I would have been playing through my copy of Pokémon Diamond (of which I logged over 500 hours), cursing at my broken Melee disc and possibly replaying Twilight Princess. None of these are bad games – but they, as well as Mario Kart and Mario Party, comprised my entire gaming experience.

Around four years ago I was visiting my best friend when she showed me this awesome new Wii game she had picked up at her local EB Games. She knew I loved wolves, and that I loved the outdoors, nature and being with animals, so she thought it would be my kind of game.

She was right.

It really, really was. And I loved it.

Watching this splendid white wolf race around Shinshu Field with flowers trailing behind her, leaping off walls and music playing unlike any I had heard before… It was simply magical. Why was this happening? What was with the brush, which fitted so well with the Wii’s motion controls? And what the hell was up with that enchanting music?

A few months later she was with me at my local shopping centre. We walked into JB Hi-Fi and I couldn’t resist; I asked after Okami. The clerk informed me that there was a copy at another store across the city, so he ordered it in for me. By the end of the week, I was putting my very own disc into my Wii and eagerly booting up the game.

When she’s swimming through or running across water, the flowers become lily pads.

Everything about it just blew me away. Okami had you assume control of the sun goddess Amaterasu as she and her little friend, Issun, strived to restore the broken land of Nippon to its former glory.  The Celestial Brush was her main weapon; drawing certain symbols in the air or on certain objects would yield powerful results. In order to defeat the dreaded eight-headed dragon Orochi and the evil demons plaguing the land, she was advised to seek out the twelve remaining brush gods and learn their techniques from them.

Okami had this showdown with Orochi building up to make it seem like the game’s final boss. Then you would beat him, and you would realise… it wasn’t. In reality, you had only just started. This proceeded to happen twice more, until finally you would find the heart of Nippon’s strife and defeat the monster at its source.

Running around Shinshu Field for the first time, having just witnessed its restoration and listening to the lovely composition in the background was the moment in which I realised I had something special on my hands. The first thing I noticed was the graphics, which were based on a form of Asian ink wash brush painting. They gave the game a unique look and really made it stand out for me. Seeing as Amaterasu’s weapon of choice was the Celestial Brush, it made it well-suited to the context of the game.

The finer details of the game were a large part of what made it enjoyable. Each character, even the minor ones, had their own personality and flair. Two characters that I remember vividly didn’t even have names. They were a mother-daughter pair of NPCs that dished out challenges to Amaterasu in order to prove that she was indeed the Goddess of the Sun. I don’t know why I remember them so clearly, but it probably has something to do with the feeling of satisfaction I enjoyed after the mother finally conceded that Amaterasu was indeed who she claimed to be.

Then there was the fact that Amaterasu would frequently take a snooze in the middle of important events, forcing Issun to wake her up. Additionally, you could make her bark at the press of a button and she really did sound just like a real dog; I would amuse myself by making her bark when my dog was in the room and then watching her stare at the TV screen and cock her head.

Page 2 contains more thoughts on this wonderful game.

The post Oprainfall Origins: Okami appeared first on oprainfall.

Editor’s Note: This article contains SPOILERS regarding the plot of Final Fantasy IX. Read with that in mind.

There is something organic in listening to Final Fantasy IX’s magnificent score. It breathes naturally and instills a sense of realism to characters, settings, and events that can all be simply described on paper. But this is a “video game”, an interactive experience designed to entertain and implement varying game elements, all of which become a fully controlled interactive media. But in taking a listen to Final Fantasy IX’s 100+ soundtrack before writing this Origins piece, the game simply becomes more than that in definition. The written story of this Final Fantasy is forever locked in my memory as a part of who I am, and its music evokes the story’s language in a game where no characters have a voice of their own.

Let’s consider that for a moment. Not one character is voiced in Final Fantasy IX. In fact, IX is the last sequential Final Fantasy to have not one character voiced by a human being. It’s the last in the series to be completely detailed in text and contain a level of communication that plays out more like a novel instead of film. We use our minds to fully imagine what Zidane, Garnet, Vivi, Eiko, Amarant, Freya Quina, Baku, Blank, Ruby, Brahne, Kuja, Puck… what they all sound like. Though I think we all have a similar sense of tone for Steiner if I do say so myself. Yes, these characters are already created in a digital presentation so we can’t actually imagine what they look like, but at least we can decide what they sound like, and this is because each character has a soul.

It’s ironic, isn’t it, bringing up the topic of souls when discussing Final Fantasy IX. The entire premise, the story’s existing plot, thrives and journeys to a conclusion based on the fact that Gaia’s souls have unknowingly been cultured for the merge with Terra. Zidane is who he is because Garland gave him a soul on Terra, but he questions his own life, his purpose, because he realizes he is supposed to be one of the final pieces of the puzzle in the destruction of Gaia.

Yet Zidane understands that even if he was born to bring destruction to the ones he loves, he doesn’t necessarily need to fulfill such a fate because of the help of his friends. This is why the “You’re Not Alone” scene/theme from Final Fantasy IX is so powerful, and it defines itself as one of my favorite scenes in a video game.

Final Fantasy IX is not the first Final Fantasy title that I had played, but it sticks with me for having its wonderful story and believable characters. Everything seems to be a story wrapped up in medieval fantasy until we reach Terra and learn the truth about Gaia and Zidane. I was ten years old when IX was released in stores, and there was no way I was going to be able to fully comprehend everything in the story. Instead I focused on the more basic plot elements and simple character motivations for my own young experience.

But if you look at Final Fantasy IX and everything it’s made of, these basic elements are really what matter most. It’s a simple story about a young man with a tail that’s a part of a group, and that group has plans to abduct a princess. From there on out we learn of secret motivations, how power can blind who we thought was the antagonist, and eventually we see a love story unfold. It’s just all there, wrapped in a nice package with supporting characters that all seem to flesh out the story even more.

You won’t see me analyze the battle system, the camera movement, or much of anything like that when it comes to Final Fantasy IX because it’s the characters that truly create the memorable experience for me. Sure, I enjoy the battle system but in every RPG I play it’s always about the characters and their stories. Although I will admit that the turn-based combat found in IX has influenced me to prefer that type of battle system to any other in the world of JRPGs.

As I mentioned earlier, the music in Final Fantasy IX is just incredibly well done. I remember riding the school bus in the 6^th grade listening to my imported soundtrack CDs that were originally produced by Digicube. I was already a fan of game music at the time, but when I started listening to Nobuo Uematu’s score I just fell in love. Every character theme evokes a particular mood for that character while each location comes alive because of the music. If you compare Zidane’s upbeat theme to Vivi’s theme of curiosity, it just makes sense. We are introduced to Vivi’s theme when he is exploring Alexandria for the first time. He’s learning his environment and we are being introduced to a new world. When we hear Zidane’s theme on the cargo ship in Dali we understand that this is Zidane’s nature to steal an airship and make it like it’s no big deal. If I may add, the battle theme never gets old and there is something special about Aloha de Chocobo that pushed me along in finding every treasure in Chocobo Hot and Cold.

Signed by the composer himself, Nobuo Uematsu.

On a more serious note, the theme for Daguerreo resonates some of my fondest memories in gaming. I will never forget the first time that I stumbled upon the island that Daguerreo inhabits, walking into such a soothing atmosphere, and actually wishing that I could visit such a place in real life. It’s just so soothing to walk around in an area that’s quiet, atmospheric, peaceful, and relaxing. The creators of Final Fantasy IX did something special here. They inserted a location into the game that’s a library, surrounded by water and shops for those who’ve searched hard enough to even find it to begin with. To me, it felt like a special achievement when I was younger and I still love visiting Daguerreo even now. I truly wish I could visit such a place on vacation.

Yet Daguerreo is not the only location that’s memorable for me. Final Fantasy IX set a standard for creative locations and interesting towns. Everything always seemed necessary in the fantastic layout design of Alexandria, Treno, Lindblum, Burmecia, etc. And with these incredibly detailed locations came fantastic moments of in-game cutscenes that I believe set a new standard for the future of gaming. I was so impressed by the artwork in IX that at one point over the years I purchased an artbook that details so much of the game’s scenery and characters. And just to gush even a bit more, in garnering an interest in the artwork behind Final Fantasy IX I was then introduced to the wonderful works of Yoshitaka Amano, of whom I now own a good number of his artbooks.

Final Fantasy IX set the standard for who I am as a gamer today. Its influence is great and I can’t think of another game that encapsulates like this one. In recently playing through it again on a PlayStation 3, nothing has really changed in my feelings towards the game. If anything, I now understand more of the story elements related to Garland and Terra, and just why you fight Necron at the end of the game. When I was younger these elements didn’t really add up for me, so instead I solely focused on my favorite characters and sat along for the ride. Now that I see the narrative is a bit more adult in nature, I can fully appreciate that Final Fantasy IX was a title made for audiences young and old covering multiple generations of gamers. It’s too bad we probably won’t see another Final Fantasy quite like it, but in the end, maybe that’s for the best.

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You’ve no doubt seen your fair share of RPGs featured in these Operation Rainfall Origins pieces. But I’m going to offer something a little different! The game that is responsible for my love of video games is the SEGA classic Streets of Rage. Some of you may not have even heard of it, but read on to find out why I owe this game so much.

What’s a video game?

It was the summer of 1990, I was nine years old, the Ninja Turtles were insanely popular, MC Hammer was still cool and I had just moved back to England with my family, after spending three years living in Portugal.

I came back to good old Blighty as an active, outdoorsy and fairly well tanned (for an englishman) chap that had little to no idea on what a video game was. My knowledge of the ‘hobby’ went as far as seeing some Arcade Machines in the local stores around Portugal, but they never held my interest – I was too busy swimming, running around a beach, or climbing trees. I was essentially doing everything that many parents of today wish their child was doing now.

However, that all changed, in August of 1990, when my older brother was given a Nintendo Entertainment System for his birthday. “What on this jolly earth is this strange gray box?” I thought to myself. It didn’t dawn on me that this would be my first experience with a video game console until my brother received his second birthday gift – a copy of the game Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. For the rest of the day I sat in awe, staring at the TV screen, taking in the glorious 8-bit graphics, listening to the funky 8-bit sound and watching my brother die over and over again on the first level. It was nothing that I had seen before, I didn’t even know that I was watching a game on a Nintendo console, all I did know was that I wanted one too.

Gimme it now!

A SEGA Megadrive?

For the months leading up to christmas, I was adamant that I wanted my very own NES with my very own copy of TMNT. My brother was one of those mean older brothers that would never let you play on his console and would constantly give you dead arms if you tried to play on it without asking – so my only option was to have one for myself.

“Are you sure?” my parents kept asking me, “I’m sure your brother will let you play on his, there’s no need to have two Nintendo consoles in our home“. I wasn’t listening, I was determined to have my own NES to play on whenever I liked, nothing was going to change my mind. That was until a saw a TV commercial for a new gaming system – it was black, it was sleek, and it was…more powerful than the NES! It was the SEGA Megadrive (Genesis).

In the 90’s, it was all about the ‘Bit’

“Ooooh, look at the graphics” I squealed. The thought of owning a NES started dwindling. My shallowness over graphics, had taken over, and I knew then exactly what I wanted. “Mother, Father. I have made my decision. I would like this new fancy, more powerful, gamesconsole for Christmas.” I had never felt so sure of anything in the nine years of my life. “Okay” they replied, “We’ll see what we can do“. My brother spent the months leading up to Christmas scowling at me.

The story continues on PAGE 2

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Before I really got into gaming, I used to watch one of my friends play games like Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda on an old NES that was handed down to them by their older sister. I wasn’t really interested in platformers and action games at the time, so I never really got into them. I was more interested in strategic games, like chess, card games, and stuff like that. Then I discovered…Pokemon.

To say that Pokemon was incredibly popular when it was first brought over internationally is an understatement. A good number of my friends were obsessed with the TV show. After discovering that the show was based on a series of games, I knew I just had to get them. So after saving up many quarters and ones of dollars and saying “Come ooooooooooooooon” to my parents a lot, I eventually got a Game Boy Advance and a copy of Pokemon Crystal.

The game that changed my life forever.

I remember the first day I got it vividly. I opened up the box and pulled out its contents, fawning over the cartridge like it was the Holy Grail. Before I even put the cartridge in my GBA, I made sure to read the manual that came with it. I didn’t know if there would be something I’d miss, since most games I was exposed to before this point barely gave you any instructions in-game. That wasn’t the case in Pokemon Crystal, though. I felt like a bit of an idiot, then.

From the moment I started the game, one of the things I really liked about it was that it was in full color. Not just having different filters on the screen, either. This was way more detailed than the previous games. The Pokemon themselves actually looked like how they do in the TV show. In Crystal, they even added little animations for the Pokemon before battle started. It’s little touches like these that make me smile.

This newfound color also gave way to Shiny Pokemon, an alternate coloring for a Pokemon that is incredibly rare. I honestly don’t care about shiny Pokemon now, but I completely lost it when I caught a shiny Pokemon of my own. No, this wasn’t the Red Gyarados that everybody caught. This was a Pokemon that just showed up out of nowhere that I immediately caught. It was an Unown, but it was a super rare blue Unown.

Completely useless, but still worth bragging about. At least, if you’re 10.

James Best expressed his love for the simplicity of the old Pokemon Red/Blue games. I didn’t play a 1^st gen Pokemon game until after I got Pokemon Crystal. While I won’t deny that there’s a charm in the original games’ simplicity, I just prefer the additions that were featured in this generation of games. I liked the day/night cycle and the special events on certain days of the week because they made the world in the game feel more alive. I liked the ability to give Pokemon items to hold because not only could you get an edge in battle with the right item, you can finally trade items with your friends. I liked the addition of Dark and Steel types because they looked cool and were something new. After playing Pokemon Yellow, where Psychic types were incredibly overpowered, I came to appreciate these new types a lot more. I liked the radio function in the Pokegear because you could play different tracks as you traveled. It wasn’t much, but it was something.

But I think my favorite thing about the game was that it expanded on the world in the games. It didn’t simply add a new region, add new Pokemon, and make up a new villainous team like later entries did. It actually referred to the events of the previous game. Whether it was the return of Team Rocket, Koga graduating to the Elite Four, or references made to the previous protagonist of the series and his adventures through the Kanto region, this generation attempted to make a strong sense of continuity. Game Freak could’ve stopped there, but they didn’t. After you beat the Elite Four, you could actually explore Kanto. You could see how they changed since then. And if you beat all the gym leaders in that region, you can go to Mt. Silver and fight the protagonist of the previous games!

Thanks to the Pokemon World Tournament in Black 2/White 2, you can fight previous gym leaders and champions. That’s nice and all, but nowhere near as cool as all of Kanto opening up to you. Aside from the remakes of Gold/Silver, no other Pokemon game would let you go back to previous regions and fully explore them.

In a move I would deeply regret later, I decided to sell my old copy of Pokemon Crystal after getting my copy of Pokemon Ruby. I knew that I couldn’t transfer my Pokemon from my copy of Crystal, so there wasn’t any point in keeping it. Unfortunately, I learned too late that not only were you unable to go back to Johto or Kanto in Ruby, but that not all of the Pokemon from those two regions made a return. I didn’t have an N64 and a copy of Pokemon Stadium 2 to back them up, which made the ‘oh god, what have I done’ feeling much more painful. Thankfully, once I was old enough to buy stuff on eBay, I bought another copy of Pokemon Crystal.

Pokemon Crystal did a lot of things right, but that’s not to say it didn’t have its faults. The breeding mechanic, even in a turn-based RPG tasking you to catch every single creature in existence, was incredibly tedious and time consuming. This only became more of a hassle once abilities and natures were introduced in Pokemon Ruby/Sapphire. Some Pokemon from the original 151 could only be obtained by trading between games from previous generations, most of them being legendaries. Since I had only one Game Boy Advance, only had Pokemon Crystal, didn’t have either an N64 or Pokemon Stadium 2 and didn’t have a lot of friends that also had Pokemon games, this really bothered me back then.

I would say that the whole happiness mechanic and “evolution via happiness” was arbitrary and pointless. But, compared to what future installments would have you do, it’s not really that bad.

I hate you. With all of my hate.

Despite Game Freak’s efforts to give this franchise a greater sense of depth in Pokemon Black/White, Pokemon ultimately still isn’t very deep in my opinion. Pokemon Crystal isn’t even my favorite game of all time. That honor is currently in a three-way tie between Final Fantasy VI, Chrono Trigger, and Earthbound. That said, I highly doubt I’d be the kind of gamer I am today if I hadn’t discovered this game, or indeed this franchise. Hell, I wouldn’t even be writing for Operation Rainfall in the first place. So I’ll always have a special place in my heart for Pokemon Crystal.

Now if only this would come to the Virtual Console…

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The last day of school was always a momentous occasion for me.  Not only did I have a summer’s worth of free time to look forward to, but this particular last day of school fell on my birthday!  Those last few hours of school, even if we did watch a movie instead of doing any real work, paled in comparison to what awaited back home.

I saw the ceremonial pile of presents stacked on the table.  Little did I suspect, one of those packages would change my life and mark the first of many adventures.

I had to wait until after supper and the traditional birthday cake before my presents could be opened.  Now that I think back on it, I can’t recall any of the other presents I got that year.  Only one stands out to me and has endured in my mind for many long years.  It was for this particular package my hand reached for first.  After the garish wrapping paper was torn away, my life would never be the same.  When the present was unwrapped, I found a large, blue turtle with cannons sticking from its back looking up at me with leering eyes, one stubby hand thrust forward.  It was as if this creature were challenging me, inviting me to go on an adventure I would never forget.  Over the turtle’s head, written in golden letters for all to see was the game’s title: Pokémon Blue Version.

One of the best gifts I’ve ever received.

Now it was no secret to my parents that I had wanted a Pokémon game of my own.  My older sister had been playing Pokémon Red for quite awhile now and I was eager to follow suit.  Having a system to play it on was no problem.  My dad had a GameBoy Pocket that was used to play Tetris.  But getting the $40 dollars necessary to buy my own game proved to be a task beyond my capability at the time.  My parents were not the type to give me an allowance (due more to money constraints than stinginess), so I had to rely on doing odd jobs for which a profit of $5 was considered a haul.

It seemed as though I would never have a Pokémon game of my own.  But on that night, my wildest dreams came true and there I was with a copy of Pokémon Blue sitting in my hands.  It was an unforgettable feeling knowing that I would soon be following in the footsteps of my peers with a belt full of Pokeballs and a new world to explore and enjoy.

The old school Pokémon games lack the complexity of the newer generations.  No one knew about EVs and IVs.  There were no Natures, Held Items, Breeding, or Day and Night features.  It was just the core Pokémon mechanics that would endure for years to come.  In some ways, I rather miss this simplicity.  When you and a friend wanted to battle, you didn’t have to worry about whether or not his Pokémon were EV trained or what tier your team fell into.  You just went at it and had a great time.

A great time was had by all!

Graphically, the games look rather terrible, and I can see why some young whippersnappers turn their noses up at them.  The Pokémon sprites look barely recognizable and the game glitches like it has no other business.  But poor graphics are no match for nostalgia and fond memories.  Thus, the game looks just as pretty to me as any modern, HD eye candy.

Blastoise? Are you okay? You don’t look so good.

And the music was absolutely memorable.  Who can forget the eerie, haunting melody that was forever burned into your mind in Lavender Town?  And who doesn’t have fond memories of bicycling along listening to that upbeat tune?  The battle music was fast-paced and exciting, making every encounter feel like a fast-paced duel to the death (well, not really to the death, but you catch my drift).  Not to sound like a Genwunner (a Pokemaniac term for someone who loves the first generation Pokémon games and despises everything after Gold and Silver), but the music in later generations just isn’t as memorable as in Pokémon Red, Blue, and Yellow.

As for atmosphere, these games had it in droves.  Who says Pokémon is for kids?  Try going through Pokémon Tower without getting chills sent up your spine.  Let’s not forget about Cubone’s mother being murdered, forcing you to fight against its violent spirit.  And don’t get me started on Team Rocket!  Again, not to sound like a Genwunner, but none of the later crime organizations can hold a candle to Team Rocket.  Sure, they might be better written with clearer objectives and fleshed-out leaders, but Team Rocket had class.  They were the gangsters from the old movies, men who were solely after power and weren’t afraid to cross lines to get it.  Heck, they were even armed with whips in the early Pokémon games, whips I tell you!

… Still don’t believe me?

They murdered a Marowak mother and left her child to die.  Not to mention they funded the unspeakable genetic splicing that brought about the terrifying might of Mewtwo.

To say Pokémon Blue had an impact on my life would be an understatement.  If it weren’t for that game, I wouldn’t be writing this and you’d probably be reading some other article.  I’m a Pokemaniac to this day and it’s safe to say I’ll be picking up Pokémon Black 2  come October.  Though I play many other games these days, from Kirby to Half-Life, I look back on Pokémon Blue as the game that introduced me to gaming and led me to where I am today: sitting in front of computer, writing articles no one is going to read, living with my parents, unemployed, and happy as a clam.  Thanks, Game Freak!

I would pay good money for Pokemon Blue to be released on the 3DS Virtual Console!

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Title: Final Fantasy Adventure Publisher: Square/Sunsoft Developer: Square Console: Game Boy Release Date: November, 1991 Genre: Action/RPG

When we first tossed around the idea of an “origins” piece amongst the staff here at Operation Rainfall, I knew I would need some time to decide what title had the single biggest impact on my gaming life. Over the past few decades, many games have had an influence on me. My very first experience with gaming involved Super Mario Bros. on the NES at the tender age of four, when I would avoid pooltime, lunch, the park, and my family for the entire trip all because I was plastered in front of their TV. The first time I saw The Legend of Zelda, I watched in awe as my cousins navigated the perilous mountains and caverns of what we now know as Hyrule. In kindergarten, I would waste entire afternoons playing MegaMan II, Kid Icarus, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles at a friend’s house. My parents probably had good reason for not buying an NES.

I could ramble on about my first Atari 2600 that was given to me by my Aunt and how the SNES was the first console I ever purchased on my own (along with my TV, which I bought for $5 at a garage sale). But despite how much fun I had playing video games up until that point, it was all just fun. Despite the countless hours poured into the hobby, I had never been emotionally involved in a game. It was all just for fun. The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past was the first game that pulled me into its world, and it definitely had a huge impact on my enjoyment of games. But if I had to choose one game that had me absorbed with its world, story, music, and visuals – the complete package – it would be Final Fantasy Adventure.

Blurry Photographic Evidence. And yes, I needed four AA batteries.

Forget for a moment that Final Fantasy is a franchise, because at the time, I had never played any of the previous “Final Fantasy” games. Also, pretend that you have never heard of Secret of Mana, (or Seiken Densetsu 2 as it is known in Japan), the sequel to Final Fantasy Adventure (to add to the confusion, it is also known as Mystic Quest in Europe). Forget that the game isn’t a Final Fantasy game at all, that it is actually the first game in what we now call the Mana series. And please, for the love of all things that are sacred, please forget the less-than stellar remake, Sword of Mana, for the Game Boy Advance. During the age before the internet, all I knew was that this was my first Final Fantasy game, and it felt a lot like Zelda, but with more danger, a more vivid world, and a heart-wrenching story, despite being on a big, white brick with purple buttons and a small green monochromatic screen.

Before I get started on few key moments that truly made this game stand a cut above the rest, I want to expound on a feature that I wish would make a comeback, but is impossible due largely to big budget voice acting – the ability to name your main characters. I know that our own Jonathan Higgins has touched on this point in several articles, and felt the need to say it again, largely because having my own name attached to the main character gave me the illusion that I was the main character. Not to mention the emotional impact of naming the leading lady after my real life love interest at the time. Although limited to just four-characters/symbols, in my mind I was reading our full names in every sentence, further adding to the weight of the story I was about to experience.

The following contains mild spoilers of the first few minutes of the game:

Immediately when the game is first powered on, a gripping, emotional tune begins to play. The slightly half-melancholy, half-hopeful melody tune sets the pace for the grand adventure ahead. Before you even leave the title screen, the haunting introductory music has already done more than a fair amount of foreshadowing.

Song Title: Rising Sun (Title Screen)Composer: Kenji Ito

Title Screenshot and Music

A brief synopsis follows the title screen, weaving a tale of the mystical Mana Tree, growing high above the clouds. The legends say that whoever touches the tree will be granted eternal power. As with many such stories, an evil man, going by the title of Dark Lord, sets forth to take this power for himself, with the intention to conquer the world.

Right from the start, it is obvious that there is a far more mature story to this game than most candy-coated games of the time. Your very first segment of gameplay is in the gladiatorial arena, where servants are forced to fight for the pleasure of Dark Lord. By throwing you into the heat of battle without warning, facing a monster that is literally four times the size of your character, you get an instant sense of immersion, and then the realization hits that this adventure will be unlike any other.

Just moments after your victory, you witness the death of your best friend, Willy, another casualty of Dark Lord’s twisted arena games. In his final moments, Willy discloses that the Mana tree is in grave danger, and that you must make your escape to warn the fabled Gemma Knights. Willy’s mysterious last words leave more questions than answers, and the only one who can provide these answers is a man named Bogard, who lives behind the falls.

Your friend Amanda talks of leaving the arena to return home and see her little brother, but with monsters blocking the exit, she can’t find it within herself to make the escape. With vengeance in mind, you make your daring escape from Dark Lord’s castle, alone. But not before one final encounter with another beast in the arena! If you are victorious in battle, you make your way out of Dark Lord’s fortress, climbing down the castle walls. Your escape leads you to a wooded glen where you see Dark Lord and his loyal sorcerer, Julius, conversing about a girl who has the key to climbing the falls and reaching the legendary Mana Tree. After sending Julius to find the mysterious girl, Dark Lord catches sight of you and proceeds to chase after you to your presumed death off the edge of a waterfall.

AND ALL OF THAT HAPPENS IN THE FIRST FIVE MINUTES OF THE GAME.

Unlike many adventure games and RPGs of the past, this was merely the introduction to a glorious journey taking you through forests and across wide, open plains, deep into mines and caverns and across a vast ocean, riding into peaceful towns on your noble Chocobo, saving the girl of your dreams and meeting the last of the legendary Gemma Knights. Trust and betrayal, life and death, war and peace, love and lust, greed and humilty – these are just a few of the themes that are explored during the course of your lengthy quest.

The Battle System

As the first game in the Seiken Densetsu (Mana) series, modern gamers will notice that it feels like a bare-bones version of the battle system found in the better-known Secret of Mana. Although the rings element is not part of the game, it does feature a live battle system, closer to The Legend of Zelda than anything in the Final Fantasy series. You see all enemies on the screen, and can choose to approach or ignore all of them. Defeating enemies earns EXP, which levels up your character. When your character levels up, players must decide what strengths they wish to level up Stamina, Power, Wisdom, or Will. You can choose to level evenly as the game progresses or choose to overpower any of those stats if you wish. Defeating enemies also ends with treasure drops that earn you money or new equipment. You will also gain the ability to cast spells. The most notable feature of the battle system is the power gauge, which, when filled, allows you to perform a special attack, doing massive damage to multiple enemies on the same screen for a short period of time. Eventually, partner characters will join you, adding an extra layer of strategy, since you can ask them to perform specific actions at certain times to assist you.

Final Fantasy Adventure perfectly blended the action/adventure elements of the Legend of Zelda with the RPG elements of the Final Fantasy series to create a unique “action/rpg” hybrid. The music is simply incredible from start to finish, and is a masterpiece of sound on the original Game Boy hardware. The graphics, although considered crude by modern standards, still manage to convey a startling sense of depth. Ripples on the surface of lakes and streams, forests are filled with trees, deserts appear windswept and dry, mines are filled with crystals and ore, waves crash on the coastline, and all of this is accomplished on a monochromatic 8-bit handheld.

While more modern games tend to rely heavily on candy-coated graphics and full motion video sequences filled with scripted voice acting, older games required an active imagination. This might be a piece for another time, but in my opinion, the comparison of adventures and RPGs of yore to modern games is close to that of comparing a good book to its movie version. Final Fantasy Adventure is like a well-crafted book, painting vivid imaginary pictures in the head of a younger version of myself, crafting an exciting adventure with a few pixels and roughly translated text, although the included 80-page instruction manual packed with concept art and separate  full-size paper map of the gameworld definitely helped flesh out the package.

This map and an 80-page Instruction Manual filled with concept art were included with every copy of the game. Sorry I can’t get a bigger picture.

I was originally going to spoil the final boss and ending in this piece because the ending of the game is both an emotional high and low, and is arguably one of the strongest plot devices in any game to date. The ending to Final Fantasy Adventure is the one thing that pulled me into the larger world of RPGs, which eventually led me to being a co-founder of Operation Rainfall. The ending to this game makes me appreciate the intricacies of modern classics such as Xenoblade Chronicles and The Last Story. The same style conclusion may have been reused by other titles over the years, evolving graphically or advancing with technology, but since this is the original and I was much younger then, it had a much more profound impact on me. Rather than spoil the ending for everyone here, I am simply going to recommend finding a way to play the game, naming your lead characters after yourself and your real-life love interest, and experiencing this incredible adventure for yourself.

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—

There is a moment in Persona 3 FES, near the end of The Journey, in which Aegis screams, “No! Don’t go!” She and the rest of the team are forcibly restricted by Nyx’s power, only able to watch in dismay as the lead character –as you – stands alone to face her. Aegis continues, “Stop! Don’t do this! Come back!” but it’s too late.  Your fate decided long ago by your actions, you face Nyx, the harbinger of The Fall, and fight for the fate of all of humanity. The bonds you forged with your friends give you the strength to fight and you emerge victorious. Upon your return and the realization that you’re alive, tears begin to stream down Aegis’ face.

And I remember this exact moment because as Aegis cried, so did I. After spending 100+ hours in this world, after gaining the trust of my teammates, after battling for life itself…how could I not?

For me, Persona 3 FES marked a turning point in my life as a gamer and as a person. No game before or since has completely submerged me into its world like P3 did. And no game before or since has allowed me to connect with another human being as it did. For while Aegis cried on screen – and me along with her – 400 miles away from me, someone else who I didn’t even know yet shared the exact same experience.

Just Push Play

I had no idea what I had seen in that opening the first time I saw it. The jazzy/rap title song, mixed with images of giant, hulking beasts and teenagers holding guns to their heads left me in awe. I couldn’t wait to find answers to these shocking images, but before I could even push start, my skin tingled. As if the opening wasn’t enticing enough, the sounds of a lone piano quietly danced back and forth in sharp contrast to what had just been. The soft, echoing sounds still to this day send shivers down my spine.

P3 oozes style at every seam. From the fashionable, yet deep, characters and haunting Personas, to the realistic world and undeniably catchy soundtrack, there’s just so much to experience and take in. You’re a typical teenager – you attend school, hang out with friends, and work on homework – but when the clock strikes twelve, everything changes. The unseen heights of Tartarus reach far into the darkness. Its shadow falls heavily on you – even during the day – so even while you go through your daily routine, it is never far from mind. The journey to reach the Tartarus’ apex is synonymous with your journey to find yourself. It beckons to be explored and you can’t help but give in.

I initially cringed at the idea of not having complete control over my party, until I got to know them. The tale in Persona 3 FES is not the tale of the lonely hero, and that lack of control only serves to pull you closer to the game’s characters. It is your bonds of love and friendship that provide you with the strength and courage to overcome the demons within – and not just within Tartarus. You don’t need to control them because you know them – and they have your back without question, much like your own family and friends.

Next page ->

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Please click for ‘full Yoshitaka Amano glory’

 When several other writers and myself were discussing an article series on games that brought each of us into gaming, I immediately thought of Final Fantasy VI.  Sure, there are games I’ve played before that were fun, even great– but when it comes to the game that has inspired fond memories, sparked imagination, and started a lifelong love of all that is Japanese, then the game in question is undoubtedly Final Fantasy VI.

If you missed out last time, Jonathan Higgins wrote his gaming love letter about The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening.

Also in the wait for the upcoming release of The Last Story, I consider this as a tribute to the two important people who gave me this gaming experience:  Hironobu Sakaguchi and Nobuo Uematsu.

–

A Child’s Imagination

It all started from the influence of my cousins. They were a bit older than me, but I loved hanging around them. They were into Dungeons & Dragons, video games, and all sorts of nerdy stuff that a kid with gobs of imagination would love. Of course, I’d already been introduced to video games, so it wasn’t a completely new experience for me. At that age, though, my imagination was starting to run wild, and I didn’t really care for reading books, so I clung to the next best thing.

Whenever I was around my cousins, I would be swept up into this air of the fantastical, and while they were into many different things, the one experience that caught my attention the most was with Final Fantasy VI (back then, it was called Final Fantasy III.*  If this is unfamiliar to you, go here and here to inform yourself). I just loved to watch them play.  I eventually got a chance to play it on my own, but it was tragically marred: I had rented a copy for a day, but in a rare occurrence, we had a big power outage and the electricity didn’t come back on until it was too late. The damage was done, and that fantastical world I craved was kept just out of my grasp.

Original US box art

There are a number of events in FF VI that captivate my imagination, and I’ve replayed the game on many occasions to experience those moments again and again.  The game’s opening scene is one that sends chills down my spine even today, and always sparks my imagination on the world and the characters. The haunting title screen, with its ominous chords and lightning flashes in the background, turns into a briefing of the world and its struggle while overlooking the empire’s castle. And then, when the scene finishes on the edge of the cliff at Narshe, with Terra, Vicks, and Wedge, the world seems not only alive, but weeping; it draws you in and says:

“Explore me. Yes, I am full of intrigue, I am what you want. I am strife, I am love, I am friendship and betrayal.”

The opening for this game is simple, yet very powerful and it only took a matter of minutes. There aren’t many games that have been able to captivate a curious mind like myself since, even with the cutting edge technology that we have today.

Part of the epic opening.

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