User:Werefang/Abyss

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Old rants:
Archive I	(1-10)

I have dabbled with this idea before. My Abyss will be my rant/thought page and will be present for everyone to read if they so choose. These will include reviews of non-FF games, hypotheses on the future canon of the series, and anything else that may pop into my head.

If you wish to discuss issues that I have posted or make suggestions for future posts (suggest non-FF games or bring up off beat topics to rant about) leave them on the discussion page. Enjoy and have a nice day.

[edit] Gaming Spotlight:Halo: Combat Evolved

Ah Halo. The Halo series is a modern Heroes epic created primarily by Bungie (not Microsoft as many claim). It is a Sci-fi First person shooter, set in the distant future, 30 years into an intersteller war between Humanity's United Nations Space Command (UNSC) and the Covenant, an alliance of alian species bent on destroying humanity. Story:

The story opens shortly after UNSC Pillar of Autumn exits hyperspace, with a fleet of Covenant ships in hot puruit. The humans spot a ring-shaped structur orbiting around a nearby planet and discover that the Covenant are temporarilly distracted by it. Captain Jacob Keyes uses this opportunity to land on the ring, Halo, in an effort to escape the Covenant. Here's where you come in: you have to keep the ship's AI out of the hands of the Covenant for as long as possible in order prevent the stored data out of their hands. Ooh-rah!

Characters: Master Chief-"Something tells me I'm not going to like this."

His full title is the Master Chief Petty Officer John-117. He is a SPARTAN II cybernetic Supersoldier of the UNSC. He acts as the PC throughout the game and he is one of the ultra bad-asses everyone around here seem so infatuated with. He can use just about any weapon to defeat his enemies and is equiped with a Mjolnir Mk. V, Powered Assault Armor with a built in anti-ballistic shield for protection. In the end though, you know very little about John. In fact, he is never seen with his helmet off, he rarely speaks, and his past is almost a complete mystery. His appeal lies in this lack of information. By this lack, a player can actually insert himself into the role of the Master Chief, seeing this world through there own eyes, not just John's. He is an Every-Man, and empty shell waiting for the player to become him.

Cortana-"Be careful! There's two of us in here, you know."

The Pillar of Autumn's shipboard AI, Cortana is the Chief's primary objective. In accodance with the Cole Protical, she is inserted into the Chief's armor. But she is far from being a useless tag along. She is able to hack Covenent tactical chatter and give strategic advice to the Chief and can even be used to quickly access terminals that control Halo.

Captain Jacob Keyes-"Bring us back up to combat alert Alpha."

The ballsy captain of the Autumn, he gives the Chief his orders. After the Chief and a number of Crewmen get of the ship, he attempts to land on Halo and discover its secrets. He is often seen with a smokeless pipe in his mouth.

Sergeant Johnson-"I would have been your daddy, but the dog beat me over the fence."

One of the most beloved characters in Halo, Johnson is the main comic relief for the game, making most of the witty comments that Halo is sometimes known for.

Foehammer-"I hope your analysis is on the money, Cortana. This Pelican won't turn on a dime."

"Foehammer" is nickname for the pilot of the Pelican Dropship, E419 (said "Echo 419"). She has a southern american accent but other than that, little is really known about her.

Covenant-Primarily made up of verious alian races that each fulfill different roles.

Grunts-Infantry and cannon fodder. Most enemies will be grunts but they scatter when the chain of command breaks down.

Jackels-Mercs with energy shields on their forarms. They tend to be more tactical but aren't always difficult.

Hunters-Giants. These guys tend to function as tanks and "equipment."

Elites-A warrior race that acts as the head of the military. Highly tactical and even have and anti-ballistic shield similar to you. Main in game rivals.

Flood-A parasite discovered on the Halo. They can assimilate many organisms and use them as vessels, becoming the game's zombie type enemy. Gameplay

As said, Halo:CE is a FPS action game. This means you have a lot of guns. But unlike many other shooters where you would get one weapon that made all other weapons superfluous, you have to carefully decide what two weapons to carry at any given time. Would you pick up a Covenant plasma rifle to rip down shields? Or would you carry the Magnum to slay the mighty Hunter? The sniper rifle so you might keep your distance? Or the Shotgun to just blow their heads off? This trade off policy was highly innovative for its time and added difficulty and flavor, which aided in Halo's success.

Opinion

Halo recieve a lot of flack for "only being about graphics." However, anyone willing to actually examine the game would see that this is just not the case. With a Complex story and intuitive mechanics, Halo deserves all of the praise it recieves.

--02:07, October 5, 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Humanity: The Warrior Race

Often, the heroes of science fiction tales are the humans while the intersteller warriors are elsewhere: the elites and brutes of Halo; the Clausians, Vendeen and Aldian of Star Ocean; Klingons of Star Trek; and the Neichians of Andromada. But what if we were to actually enter an interstellar stage. Would we truly be the pacifists we make ourselve out to be? We, with our violent and bloody history; or stories of war and gore; our anthems to rebellion and heroes who have taken their place at the tips of swords and spears and guns. Or could it be possible, nay, probable that as we take our first steps to greet our brothers among the stars, will it not be as like the landfall of the Norse on the shores of the new world; these explorers and warlords, with weapons that shine and glisten in the sunlight? Will we recieve fear and respect? Will we become their military elite; swaying whole wars one way or another? Or will they see these dangers-this psychotic race- and act to silence the barbarians, the hordes, before they can become a plague?

--00:00, September 2, 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Gaming Spotlight: Drakengard

"Drakengard" (called Drag-on Dragoon in Japan) is a hack-and-slash action RPG made by Square Enix (yay). It was released only for the PS2 and is rated M by the ESRB for violence and gore.

Story:

A great war rages between the armies of the Union and the Empire. The Empire's objective is to break the goddess seal and bring about the end of the world. The Union fights to protect it. But the empire is unstoppable. At every battle, Union soldiers are slaughtered wholesale. The story begins during a battle at the castle where the goddess is being kept.

Characters:

Caim - "Empire rats; you shall feed the ravens!"

The main protagonist, Caim is the prince of a kingdom destroyed by the empire; he was even forced to watch as his parents were torn apart by Imperial black dragons. This contributes to an extent to his sadistic enjoyment of battle with. He has absolute hatred for the empire as well a dragons. However, a severe wound to his back forces him to make a pact with the dragon held captive by the empire. Reluctantly, they exchange hearts; an act that gives him incredible power at the cost of something that he holds dear: his voice, marked by an emblem emblazened on his tongue.

The Red Dragon - "Human castles are all built on sand."

She has little more than contempt for all humans and only forms a pact with Caim because he threatens to kill her otherwise. She can communicate telepathically with Caim and acts as his mouth at times. At first, she does not trust Caim but as they fight together, a bond transending their mutual hatred is formed. She allows Caim to ride on her back and can fight enemies from the air.

Leonard - "I am already dead. Where this body drops and rots is of no matter now."

A man who lived peacefully away from society with his two brothers. As the Empire moved, it deemed this a problem, razed the hermitage to the ground and murdered Leonard's brothers. Seeing his home destroyed and his brothers dead, Leonard attempted to take his own life. However, a faerie tricked him into forming a pact. The cost was his sight, a cost made greater by the fact that the last things that he ever saw were the mutilated bodies of his brothers.

Arioch - "Where are my children?!"

An elf driven mad by the murder of her children. While being held prisoner by the Empire, Undine and Salamander convinced her to form a pact, the cost being her womb. Perhaps that is for the best though, as the madness of her loss causes her to delight in mutilating children and using their lifeless bodies as toys.

Seere - "I-I won't be alone! Golem will be with me. Besides, I became the 'Little Hero.'"

A young boy searching for his sister. Their mother had always treated Seere better than his sister, Manah. Because of this, she ran away, searching for a purpose. During his search, Seere made pact with Golem and eventually joins Caim to face the "Cult of the Watchers."

Verdelet - "I do not understand. It cannot be. Has the last seal been broken?"

The Hierarch, he is responsible for creating the seals that bind the Goddess. These seals keep the gods from bringing about the end of the world. But he is a cowardly old man. He made a pact with a petrified dragon and as a result lost his hair.

Furiae - "I am well...quite well. But what of Inuart?"

She is the goddess, the seal to prevent the end of the world. But the empire seeks to kill her and bring the "Seeds of Reserrection." She is...was Caim's sister before she was cursed with her fate. She is a soft hearted woman and cares more about those around her than herself.

Inuart - "Songs!? I pray for strength!"

Before Furiae became the goddess, she and Inuart were engaged to be married. Now he wants only the strength to protect her. To do so, he forms a pact with an imperial black dragon. The cost: he can no longer make the music that those around him knew him for.

Gameplay:

Drakengard is a hack-and-slash, 3rd-person action game. The story is punctuated by a Chapter and Verse mission selection that allows you to return to older stages of the game with the current weapons and experience. A weapon wheel allows the play to switch between 8 weapons at a time, while a support system allows you to call either Leonard, Arioch or Seere into battle in your stead for a short time. Also, in accordance with the tag line, "Death from above, Chaos below," you can switch between air combat and ground based melee combat thanks to the red dragon. Each weapon has a predefined combo as well as a spell used to fight groups of enemies. These combos, attacks and spells can be made stonger by leveling up the weapons. They also have their own stories and histories behind them that extends the replay value of the game and are unlocked with the levels as well.

Opinion:

I would consider Drakengard to be one of my favorite Square Enix games. The only one ahead would be the sequal, Drakengard 2. A deep and intreguing story and exiting gameplay make the game one of my favorites, even if it is incredibly dark.

--19:05, 5 July 2009 (UTC)

[edit] The Job Hunt

Many times, people here obsessively refer to characters by a particullar Job (job classes being the classic means of refering to characters). Unfortunately, they resort to this even in refering to games such as VII, VIII and even XII. A debate about jobs even spread to the DNC nomination page in referance to FF7. I believe that people here don't know what a job is. I will attempt to explain. A Job is an occupation (no matter how much you dissent, you cannot change this fact). How do I know this? Because of the word, "Job." If it was not meant to imply "profession," they would have chosen "class" or "type." "But Fang, what about Vincent? There is no job called 'Unemployed.'" That is a separate issue. You will notice that 7 lacks a job system so it does not count. Games that include job systems often follow a separate protocal.
History of Jobs
Jobs appeared for the first time in FFI, likely the reason behind the zealose attribution. Originally, there were 6 job types, each with its own strengths and weaknesses. As the game had no back story, it is difficult to explain it using 1 as an example. Other games in the franchise are better for explaining. 3, again, is problematic as there was originally no back story, and also, I have never played any version of it. However, as the mechanics seem similar to FF5, it is safe to say that "Job" is more a referance to the "job" that they fill in the party. The first best example is actually 4. In this one, job refers to the profession. Cecil, the central protagonist, is a Dark Knight in the Baron Army. This is more equatable with "soldier" or "Marine" in the US military. The same holds true for Kain. Rosa is a White mage, a medic, so to speak. And perhaps the most blatent of them all, Cid is an Engineer. He designs airships for the military, as anyone of his trade might. Though Edward is a prince, he masquerades as a bard. Bard is a profession. All of the magic users act as scholars and scientist in their worlds, each one's field of study, centered in the one dictated by their job. This is similar to 9: Zidane is a theif because he actually commits crimes, Steiner is a Knight because he works as such, Vivi is a black mage because that was his primary function. 5 was not originally released in the US with other installments of the franchise. However, it can work, as the central job of the game is Freelancer. Freelancer is the term for a private soldier who does not directly serve any interest. This is best way to discribe all of the heroes, as all of them have have left their homes in an effort to save the world. But as with 3 (and TA, TA2, and X-2) and is more a referance to job in your party. "But what about Tactics?" As with the previous it follows a job-in-your-party style as with the above. However, unlike the above, there are also some unique jobs assossiated with the unique characters. Ramza is a squire. He is a knight in training (which is what squire means). In chapter 1, he studies in the Academy. Because he never graduated, he never became a knight. Argath (Algus), because of his (blind) loyalty recives that rank. TG Cid is considered by some to be a Saint that weilds a sword, thus he has the title of Sword Saint. Mustadio the Engineer (same deal as before), Balthier the Sky Pirate, Cloud the SOLDIER (given this job to avoid spoilers). These were all profesions, except for Cloud, as there was no guarantee that people had played 7 up to that point, they had to call him Soldier in order to avoid spoiling the game.
The absence to the Classic Job
First inroduced in FF2, Square (now SE) dabbled with the ability to fully customize your party, rather than relying on static jobs. Each character could use any weapon, and learn any magic. All of these character are best refered to as freelancers as no single job can be used to discribe them under all situations. Firion can have a sword and shield on one file and act as a warrior. But another file may give him a lance and white magic. Some of the 4th character tend towards inherent jobs, and in these cases these jobs are their overt profession: Minwu is the White Mage of the Rebellion, Ricard is a Dragoon by trade, Leon is the Dark Knight of the Empire. Eventually, the "whatever-weapon-you-want" was abandoned, but the "magic and skills" remained the same in 7, 8 and to a lesser extent 10(maybe 6 but I haven't played it). By overloading even the biggest brute with magic materia, they can become the equivilent of a black, white or red mage (high magic, low HP and Att). Or if you give Aerith a number of Attack up materia and others to boost what you wouldn't think of boosting, you can make her a fairly good brawler. Many consider Cloud to be a fighter, but if you overload him with magics, his attacks will be weak and he will die in one hit. Unlike 2 though, there is a justificating (though nonsensical) for these jobs. Tifa and Zell fight bare handed. Even though neither have set foot in a monastary, they must be monks.</sarcasm> They both can use magic fairly well, too. This is a feature that is noticably absent from all official monk characters.

10 is a unique case though. Unlike others in this set, everyone is initially set up for a particular speciality. Lulu starts as a black mage, Rikku is the only theif, Auron is the only stat breaker. But as with the above, there are near limitless possibilities. Wakka can jump into Lulu's section to learn magics, Lulu an improve her physical strength by reaching Auron's section, Kimahri branch into anyone's grid and lean everything. You end up with a fully customizable party (except for Yuna's summons).

XII returns to the absolute Weapon, skill and magic freedom abandoned sinse II. You can give Heavy Armor to someone with a dagger and every magic and there is no problem with that. And it remains to be seen but 13 seems to return to a similar mechanism, everyone with unique weapons but can use just about any skill.

In closing
I contend that there are two distinct styles of developement when it comes to unit types: Jobs and Free typing. Jobs force the player to select a preprogrammed type of character with unchangable strengths and weaknesses. Knghts will never be strong mages, and mages will never be stong mages. Free typing enables one to create more variation, focusing on what you need to do at any given time. Say you want Cloud to be focused on lightning magic. You can focus on that. Make him a power house, mech crusher, that is fine. Say you need Zell to kill that Ice monster faster, focus on fire. You can focus on anything you want. Or you can focus on nothing and make them perfect. Become a master of magic but also boost attack. That is fine too, though it takes more time. You can not just focus on weapons to tell the job: though Sephiroth has a Japanese style sword he is not a samurai. He has none of the skill sets assossiated with the job and if you have ever reached Wutai, you know Cloud can get a katana.

-23:57, 4 June 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Volume XIII

I was looking over some of the old trailers of Final Fantasy XIII and noticed something that everyone else has already seen. Snow has a Sub-Machine gun. This curiosity inspired me to examine a number of the characters. XIII has the most ranged fighters of any Final Fantasy. In fact, every single friendly character is shown with some sort of ranged weapon: in most cases a fire-arm but Oerba Dia Vanille is seen with what looks like a bow over her shoulder. However, two of these heroes are shown with melee weapons: Lightning can change her weapon into a sword and Snow is shown to be a brawler of some sort. This suggest something that I would find quite interesting. Is it possible that every character will have access to both a Melee and ranged weapon, similar to FFXI? Personally, I would love this if it were the case. I would love to see the ability to do Devil May Cry type combos during battle. It will make battles more exiting and more engaging. But that's just my oppinion.

Now I will talk about why I was looking at old trailers: I was looking for something including the recently revealled Odin summon. As I've seen it, most summons seen to be Cybernetic in nature: Shiva is a motorcycle, Ifrit looks like he could become a train system with all those metal smokestacks stiking off of him, Carbuncle is in a CD, and Shiva looks like the AI Cortana in Halo. Odin himself has been described as a "man in armor." But "armor" can easily be the missinterpretation of a "steel chassis," although I haven't seen him yet so...

Anyway, these are just some of my hypotheses. There is no actual proof so this is all conjectur. If I do happen to be right though, I would guess that Bahamut is the Airship.

-13:21, 2 June 2009 (UTC)

Werefang 2,132 edits since February 18, 2009