With the release of God of War III, the final chapter in Kratos’s story is finally revealed. His quest for vengeance against his father Zeus and any other god that stands in his way is coming to a close. Does this game live up to the massive hype surrounding it or does it whimper out like a Cerberus pup? Read on to find out.



God of War III is certainly a God of War game. This game is an absolutely brutal, bloody, gory tale of vengeance like the previous two entries. Throughout the first two games, I found myself consistently surprised at how each new enemy I came upon and subsequently killed, died in an even bloodier and violent fashion. This game is no different in that respect. The high definition graphics make each slice and stab of Kratos’s blades that much more sickening and gory. It’s fantastic. Seeing entrails fall from centaur-like creatures and ligaments tear as heads are ripped are grossly awesome from the first time to the last time they occur. There aren’t many games that have grossed me out quite like this game did, and I loved every second of it.

While I loved the animations in this game, the overall package was far from perfect. At a few points in the game, there were some technical issues, such as frame rate drops and some clipping issues. I found this disappointing considering this is a first party exclusive title. These issues were made even more glaring thanks to the fact I just completed Final Fantasy XIII and it had very little technical issues. I also found that double jumping after hopping off a grapple point doesn’t always work. This led to a few deaths that shouldn’t have occurred. I also had a couple issues where save points didn’t work until I’d run around away from it for about 30 seconds then came back. Even when I did return to the save, it wouldn’t always work when I was standing right in it, but it would work if I was a couple steps away. It’s strange technical issues like these that caused the largest amount of annoyance while playing this game.



The issues with the game don’t take away from the enjoyment of the game though. The game’s opening sequence is easily as memorable as the Hydra from the first game. Sadly, there isn’t really anything quite as amazing and jaw droppingly awesome throughout the rest of the game. That doesn’t change the fact that the pace never lets up throughout the entire story. That opening sequence just set forth the crazy rollercoaster of action set piece after action set piece. While the rest of the game may not live up to that opening, that’s not to say it’s not good. I still found myself constantly wanting to proceed and not put the controller down. That may be why I beat it in two sittings. It also helped that this game only took about eight hours. I must admit that I appreciated the length of this one. I felt that God of War II dragged on a few places but I never got that feeling from this game. This game felt perfectly paced to me and that makes a huge difference for me in action games such as this.

Ultimately, this game was an excellent entry into the God of War franchise. Kratos’s anger never waned throughout the three entries of this series. He made an excellent anti-hero and I’m glad that this conclusion did the series justice by being as amazing as both of the previous games. I look forward to whatever this development team comes up with in the future.

It’s been about three and a half years since the last Final Fantasy title was released. It’s been even longer since this thirteenth installment was announced. In all this time, I’ve been anxiously awaiting this game, as I am with each Final Fantasy. While I wouldn’t put this entry up with some of my favorite titles in this series, it certainly wasn’t the worse. Read on while I elaborate further on this game’s pros and cons.

Final Fantasy XIII is certainly a slow burn. It’s about two hours before experience points are earned from battles. I can understand how many would be turned off by this, but for me, these two hours went by so quickly I barely noticed. In an RPG with a precedence of being extremely lengthy titles, two hours is typically a drop in the bucket compared to the final playing time. After this initial opening, I felt that the story began to pick up though.



Since the game was released in Japan, I feel like I’ve heard nothing but complaining about the linearity and how that’s such a bad thing. I actually felt this added an interesting urgency to the game. Since there wasn’t anything to do except proceed forward, I felt myself pushing the story along much quicker than I have in previous Final Fantasy games. This provided an experience that was quite unique. I certainly wasn’t expecting the sense of urgency, but I disliked it. This made the game feel like it was reasonably paced and hurtled on to until about chapter 11. At which point the game introduces an extremely large area with some side quests. This was quite the abrupt change from the first twenty-five hours of gameplay, but I found myself oddly relaxed when I reached Gran Pulse. I felt like the game finally allowed me to take a break and just enjoy the beautiful scenery that Gran Pulse had to offer. If the entire game had been like this, I don’t think I would have appreciated this area as much. I wouldn’t have taken the time to explore the nooks and crannies that I was able to and witness some of the incredible monster designs as well as the cliffs and various flora and fauna that was unique to this world alone. For me, that moment alone was worth the linearity of the previous twenty-five hours.



I think the game would have had a difficult time selling me on that point if it didn’t look so damn good. As I mentioned in my Initial Impressions post, this game is astonishingly beautiful. Although I realize its a little nitpicky, one of my biggest pet peeves in gaming today is clipping. I hate seeing pieces of my character’s equipment clip through their body. Despite Lightning wearing a flowing half-cape thing and other characters having clothes that moved realistically, I never once noticed any of these interacting strangely with their character models. I think it says a lot about the graphical quality of this game that I had to look for such a small detail as clipping and still couldn’t find any issues. Truly, it’s difficult to conceive of another game looking this good in the near future. Along with looking beautiful, it did all this without slowing down. I never noticed any dip in the frame rate which is quite astounding for how quickly parts of the game move, namely the battles.



Along with being fast, I found the battle system to provide quite the unique experience. I’m used to each Final Fantasy title providing some different twist on the battle system. I was rather apprehensive about the battle system in this game considering it looked so similar to XII’s battle system. One of my main problems with XII’s battle system was I felt that it was incredibly slow and took away a bit too much control in my bringing down hordes of monsters. The battles in XIII were much quicker paced which alleviated much of my issues from the previous title. I was also much more a fan of the menu based battle systems. I’ve always preferred to have total control over each of my characters in battle. I feel that I can at least somewhat predict what an enemy is going to do, thus allowing me to decide to queue an attack or spell before the turn plays out. I found that the quick pace of battle in this game though did well enough with the AI controlled party members and the Auto-Battle function. While this was a bit of a loss of direct control, I found that this allowed me to watch over the battle as a whole. Instead of micromanaging each of my characters attacks, I was able to macro manage the battle as a whole. This allowed for an experience that I haven’t yet had in a Final Fantasy game. While it’s still not my favorite battle method, I don’t think the Final Fantasy titles will return to the menu based battle system any time soon. I’ve accepted that fact, and this system is certainly closer to being enjoyable despite the lack of control.

One of my largest issues with the game, though, was the story. In a JRPG, this should be one of, if not the, most important aspect of the game. I just felt like it didn’t have the pull like some of the previous games in the series have had. The overall theme of fighting against destiny certainly isn’t pushing any boundaries for originality in this genre, but some of the dialog near the end made it feel like it was pulling just a bit from some previous games in the series. While some of the voice actors and dialog were a little off putting early on, I found that as the game went on, I did begin to enjoy some of these characters. While the overall plot may not have been the most memorable, I found the characters themselves to be interesting for the most part. For instance, I expected Sazh (the guy with the chocobo in his ‘fro) to be nothing more than comic relief. I was pleasantly surprised to find his story to be one of the most emotionally engaging characters in the story. Maybe it was due to my initial expectations for him going in, but if nothing else, I’ll remember the main bits of his story and how I felt at their resolution well after this game has begun gathering dust.



While this may not obtain the legendary status of say, Final Fantasy VII, this is still a worthy entry into the Final Fantasy series as a whole. While the story leaves a bit to be desired, the new battle system is worth experiencing. If that’s still not enough to try this out, the absolute eye candy this game provides from the first second to the very last is worth every penny invested in this game.

[To read more blog articles by myself, Ezra, and DPRVig feel free to visit Wingknights Blog ]

This is the first Initial Impressions post, but it certainly won’t be the last. These posts will serve to deliver some of my first thoughts while playing through the first handful of hours in a game. For this entry, I’ll be looking at Final Fantasy XIII. I’ve gotten about six hours into the game so I’ll briefly write about some of my immediate likes and dislikes about this portion of the game. This article may contain some minor spoilers.


My very first thought upon starting a new game was simply “Wow, this game looks great.” When Final Fantasy games get released, they’ve typically been some of the best looking games on their respective consoles. From high quality sprites, to full motion video, to the astounding graphics of today, Final Fantasy games have set the standards for pushing the available graphical quality of various consoles. The characters in XIII have some very subtle facial movements that convey a great deal of emotion. I thoroughly enjoy being able to understand what a character is feeling by the slightest movement of their facial features. It seems like a small detail, but thus far in the game, it’s a detail that has added a lot to the story for me. Another graphical issue that’s prevalent in a lot of other that I have yet to see in XIII is clipping. There’s been a kissing scene already in this game and it is astounding how much more well done it was portrayed in this game as opposed to another game I’ve recently completed, Heavy Rain. That sounds like an incredibly silly thing to be nitpicky about, but it was horribly done in Heavy Rain that I couldn’t help but notice how much better XIII handled this. I’m sure that as I continue playing, some graphical issues will show themselves, but so far, they seem to be held to a minimum and I truly appreciate that.


The next part of the game that was made obvious to me was the various characters. Many of them are introduced quickly and all seem to be quite unique. From the tough as nails female ex-soldier to the buff guy who’s really a big softie, to the older black guy that acts as comedic relief, and finally the young kids that seem to have been pulled into a conflict that’s much bigger than they could have thought. Each of these characters seems to have their own motivations for teaming up and going on this adventure, although these reasons haven’t been made clear to me at this point. I’ll admit, I haven’t been a huge fan of some of the dialogue (“I told you, Mom’s are tough”) but most of the cheesy lines are pretty typical for a JRPG. The main thing is, I find myself genuinely interested in learning about what brought my group to this point and how they resolve their many issues as the game progresses.


In most RPGs, battles are plentiful and the main way to increase your party’s strength and gain new abilities. This is certainly no different for this Final Fantasy. One of my biggest turnoffs in Final Fantasy XII was the battle system. I hated losing control of the other two members of my party and instead relying on certain conditional statements to be met in order for them to perform an action. I was used to thinking a few steps ahead in choosing my abilities where as I felt that my AI characters were always a couple of steps in XII. While my control over my other two party members is still gone in XIII, so far the AI has seemed much more competent. Once a weakness is known, the AI will cast that spell in order to do the most damage possible and it will avoid casting spells or using abilities that the enemy is strong against. This same AI is also used for the player-character’s Auto-battle function. I’ve found it to know when enemies are close together therefore causing it to use an area of effect ability as opposed to a single target attack. Sadly, it still doesn’t anticipate enemy movements like a human can, but with the pace of battle being so much faster, it’s not as noticeable or devastating as it was in XII. The quicker paced battle system is much better suited for a game that only allows for control over one playable character. I can’t wait to see how the battles change as I unlock more roles, learn more abilities, and generally become more proficient with the battle system.
Finally, I must admit I’ve enjoyed the leveling system pretty thoroughly thus far. It reminds me a lot of the sphere grid from Final Fantasy X except each character has their own separate areas and abilities to learn despite having some of the same classes. This makes each character feel more unique despite being the same class. For instance, Sazh and Hope each have the Synergist class, but Hope learns Protect and Shell defensive buffs whereas Sazh learns the Faith and Bravery offensive buffs. This will certainly make the decision tough when I have the option of switching out my party. I also only just recently gained the ability to upgrade my weapons and accessories. I haven’t had the chance to delve too far into this system yet, but I can see this being an incredibly addicting and deep aspect of the game. This is the game play mechanic I’m looking forward to explore much more thoroughly as I progress through the game.
All of these reasons together have made for an extremely enjoyable early experience with the newest Final Fantasy title. Despite the few instances of cheesy dialogue, the story and game play have me hooked and anxiously awaiting the chance to invest even more hours into this title.

[To read more blog articles by myself, Ezra, and DPRVig feel free to visit Wingknights Blog ]

What makes a game great? For me, it's not all about getting a high score or beating someone else in a couple of bouts. No, for me, it's mainly about a compelling storyline. Nothing beats the feeling of being awed and emotionally invested in a truly wonderful game.

Before I began writing this article, I was looking through my game collection and seeing which ones I've played through multiple times and what these games have in common. Each game that I picked out was an RPG with an interesting story and an excellent cast of characters that I found myself becoming emotionally invested with. Some of the games I've enjoyed most are many of the entries in the Final Fantasy series, Lunar, Chrono Trigger, and numerous others. However, one game that embodies what I enjoy most in a gaming experience is Final Fantasy X. The characters are interesting and the story is deep making it a game I find myself going back to time and time again.



My best friend at the time picked up FFX about 2 weeks before I got my hands on a copy of my own. That first night, we played from 8 o'clock that night until about 6 the following morning. I can still see us both just watching the intro cinematic with all of the characters sitting around the campfire outside of Zanarkand. I was immediately hooked after hearing Tidus's opening monologue which felt like an invitation to the player to join him in the telling of his story. This really gave me the feeling of joining in on an epic adventure. While it's true, the story is never as mind-blowing after you've seen it once, I still find it immensely enjoyable to relive the experience again and again. When I hit a major plot point in the story, I can remember how I felt that first time I experienced it and regain those feelings. For me, it's just like reading a great book multiple times, only in this case, it's playing a video game.



Another thing I really enjoy from games like this is when the ability to customize your party's stats and abilities is included in the game. Using FFX as the example, there was certainly quite a bit of customization that you could use for each character. The sphere grid, while not a perfect system, was still able to provide the player with the ability to build a character's stats in a variety of different ways. If you wanted a character with plenty of physical strength, you'd simply take them through Auron's or Wakka's section of the grid. If you wanted White or Black magic, you'd take a character through Yuna's or Lulu's sections respectively. This allows the player to play the same game over and over and never have the exactly the same setup each time. This system could even be used to make the game more challenging for the player by eventually getting Auron around to Yuna's section, and making him more of a White Mage or taking Lulu through Wakka's section and making her a bit more potent with her dolls. While a player typically wouldn't set up their party in this way, it's nice to know that the option is there, should the player be so inclined to try to make the gaming experience as unique as possible.

In this 3D graphical era, the graphics will age and become antiquated, but an engaging tale will be forever. Being able to experience a great story will keep me coming back to excellent games over and over again.

So I've been playing FFTA2 for about 2 weeks now, and I've already clocked over 45 hours into this game. I'm awfully suprised at just how much time I've put into this game. This certainly isn't a great a game, but for some reason, I'm incredibly addicted to it, despite also having the new FFIV game for DS just waiting to be played.

I was incredibly disappointed by the first Tactics Advance game, mostly due to the high expections from the original, and wonderful, Final Fantasy Tactics. The introduction of the harsh law system and the incredibly toned down story, FFTA was extremely far from what I had wanted, so when FFTA2 was announced, I was extremely hesitant. Once I learned that the law system had been pretty much overhauled, however, I decided I'd give this game a shot.

When I first began my new game, I was disappointed to see that my character was still a child going on summer vacation, only to be sucked into a book and taken into the world Ivalice. This was so very similar to FFTA, that I nearly shut the game off then and there. But, I decided to continue on and at least give some of the battles a try. After the obligatory training mission, I felt prepared enough to take on my first story mission. This actually turned out to be a bit tougher than I had expected, bringing back some fond memories of the originial Tactics game for the Playstation. After I beat the first mission or two, I felt I was ready to begin taking on some of the additional side quests the game had to offer. Here's where I found some of my favorite moments in the game. Very few side missions are standalone. Typically each little story takes place over a handful of side quests. While yes, they are relatively simple, not overly deep stories, they're at least interesting enough to make me want to see what will happen next to the people I've interacted with.

Along with enjoyable side stories, each quest itself is really pretty fun. Yes, there are quite a few "defeat all foes" or "defeat this mark" missions, the areas and character placements vary enough to make me feel as though I need to put in more thought into my moves than I did in FFTA. Another thing that makes each battle more enjoyable is, surprisingly enough, the law system. The new law system isn't nearly as harsh as it was in FFTA. If you don't follow a law in this game, you are only penalized by not being able to Raise your fallen comrades during the battle, and you lose out on a couple bonus items after the fight. My only real complaint about this system are some of the ridiculous laws (I'm looking at you No Misses law). While these can be annoying, since the penalties aren't horrible, it's easy enough to get over the loss of 2 or 3 bonus items.

Another reason I really enjoy these side quests, is the reward of the ability points needed to upgrade your character's jobs. For some reason, I've always enjoyed gaining access to new jobs and working on learning all the abilites as quickly as possible. This current system isn't too different from the other Tactics games, in that you can use abilities from two jobs at a time, one set of abilites from your current job, as well as a second set from another job you've leveled previously. This allows for each player to customize their characters, making most player's experiences different from anyone else's. Obviously there are "ideal" builds that most people will use, but it's nice to know that the customization aspect is there for those that want to have a unique gaming experience.

As far as the main story line goes, it has been somewhat lackluster. I've only completed about 12 main story missions. Right now, I'm having way too much fun completing all the side quests that I possibly can. This is why my team is already level 45-50, despite having completed so few story missions.

All in all, this game is quite a step from the first Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, but not quite up to par with the original Final Fantasy Tactics in terms of story. Despite this fact, I'm certainly happy that this game is a part of my DS collection.

PS: First blog post, Yay!