2014 Games Recap

Something I've done on this blog for the past few years, if the only constant this blog has going for it, is recapping what games I've played and beaten over the course of the previous year. Today being March 3, my recap of 2014 is a bit late. However I had not forgotten, just lazy. And rather be playing games. To my reader out there, no, this is not done by memory. Over the course of the year I keep track of what I play, and mark it when I beat it.

Which gets into my rules, as I always post before continuing with my list. Nothing has changed, but my rules must still be stated for clarity. All games on the list were played at some point during 2014, though not necessarily started in 2014. All games were played for at least one hour. Games in bold have been finished. Games without endings are still listed. Finished does not mean 100% completed, however any games that met those requirements will be notched with a *. Finally, any game having been beaten before, and therefore not my first playthrough, will be notched with a ^.

A side note I would like to point out, is that while these games are listed by system, the order by which they are listed within each is the order I started them in. Just something that came with being more attentive to my play list.

Nintendo DS: Played 1 - Beat 1
Final Fantasy III

 Nintendo 3DS: Played 7 - Beat 0
Animal Crossing: New Leaf
Paper Mario: Sticker Star
The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds
Tomodachi Life
Theatrhythm Final Fantasy: Curtain Call
Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS
Fantasy Life

Nintendo Wii: Played 2 - Beat 0
Final Fantasy VI
Super Castlevania IV

PlayStation Portable: Played 4 - Beat 2
Final Fantasy IV
Final Fantasy IV: Interlude
Final Fantasy IV: The After Years
Final Fantasy V
Persona 3 Portable

Nintendo Wii U: Played 16 - Beat 4
Super Mario World
Super Metroid^
The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker*^
NES Remix 
Mario Kart 8 
1001 Spikes
Child of Light
Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate
Unepic
Castlevania
Castlevania II: Simon's Quest
Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse
Castlevania: Circle of the Moon
Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance^
Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow^
Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo Wii U

Xbox 360: Played 22 - Beat 6
Spelunky
Fallout 3^
Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons*
Miner Dig Deep
Zuma's Revenge!
Outland
Alice: Madness Returns
The Bridge
SSX
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater HD
Deadlight
Sonic Generations
Dark Souls
Saints Row IV
Peggle 2
Borderlands (DLC)
Castlevania: Harmony of Despair^
Grand Theft Auto V*^
Banjo-Kazooie
Mass Effect 2
Bastion
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night^

Total: Played 52 - Beat 13

Compared to prior years, the ratio of played to beat is pretty bad. Only one quarter of all games played during 2014 ended up getting beat. And over half of those beaten were in series of games I have been working on completing (Final Fantasy and Castlevania). On the bright side (I think?), I played more games than last year, which could be why not as many were finished, percentage-wise.

Of note, I finished off Final Fantasy III, which I totally forgot happened in 2014. That was a major stepping stone in continuing my quest to play through every Final Fantasy game, in order. Two more main-line Final Fantasy games were beaten in 2014, not even including most of Final Fantasy VI as well, which was finished shortly into 2015. You may have also noted that in the PSP section, I stated only 4 were played, and 2 beat, yet those do not match what is listed. For clarification, I beat Final Fantasy IV: Interlude, but being a 2 hour literal interlude, do not count as a full game. I do consider Final Fantasy IV: The After Years a full game though, since for many people takes longer to beat than the original game. I hope to beat a few more Final Fantasy games this year.

2014 was also a big year for Castlevania, which I started to play through from the beginning. Even with save states, beating Castlevania III will likely never happen. And in order to beat Super Castlevania IV, I'll likely need save states. I will be starting Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow sometime later this year, to begin the end of the Castlevania series.

Last thoughts- the pattern of the year, while not visible above, basically went from playing Xbox 360 games, to handheld games, to owning a Wii U and playing a bunch of those games. With Final Fantasy games throughout the year. Overall, not a very interesting year, but fun games nonetheless.

Final Fantasy VI

It’s here, my Final Fantasy VI blog post. That means I have finally finished the sixth game in the Final Fantasy series! It’s been nine months since I last posted, not that it took me nine months to beat the game. I did, however, quite playing the game on two occasions. The first time (during the summer) was about a third into the game, and the game just wasn’t grabbing hold of me. I know, sounds crazy for Final Fantasy VI, but I typically only play RPG’s during the winter months. Notice how my posts for the first five Final Fantasy games all were uploaded during winter months. Something I’ve noticed about my gameplay habits over the years. Maybe it’s because I have less urge to leave the apartment during the winter, and can spend more time invested in longer games. Anyways, the second time was right as I was finishing up the World of Ruin, and went home for Christmas. Couldn’t really be avoided, and wasn’t in the mood to play right when I came back. Two weeks ago though, I picked it back up, finished some side quests, grinded for some magic spells, and yesterday, ran through Kefka’s tower.

To little surprise, this is my favorite Final Fantasy game so far. I hope to keep this post short (in comparison to my prior posts), and shouldn’t be a problem as I don’t have many complaints with the game. I read through each of the past five game posts before writing this, and I also plan on avoiding the small nitpicks or positives I found in the game (example: inventory is no longer limited- I wouldn’t have even thought of this positive if I hadn’t read the other posts).

I’ll begin with a common theme of my positives found with the game. The music continues to be amazing, one thing I feel like Square couldn’t screw up with these games. I’m listening to the OST right now, and enjoy the diversity of tracks, which fit in well with the areas of the game, or themes of the cutscenes. Brought over from Final Fantasy V (and maybe IV?), I really liked how every character has their own them. When a cutscene starts, and a theme begins, the player knows who the focus is on, and who to be paying the most attention to. And while it’s very difficult this time to point out the best tracks, Celes’ theme has to be near the top, its greatness increased in thanks to the island sequence. If there are any complaints with the music, it’s that a few tracks have identical portions also heard in Chrono Trigger. Yes, Final Fantasy VI came out over a year beforehand, and doesn’t really detract from either game, but with such great musical talent on staff, would have liked for more diversity.

Graphics are great, nothing outstanding, but nothing to downplay during the game’s release timeframe. Areas are diverse, and feel different. Wish the cities on the map were more visible, but again, me nitpicking.

No segue here, just jumping to characterization. Final Fantasy VI continues what IV and V started, of giving characters personalities, and tying emotion into gameplay and cutscenes. Scenes aren’t as sad as Final Fantasy V, but there’s also less death. The good news is for what death is included, they’re no longer just plot devices. A death becomes a driving part of the story, and gives characters a reason to move forward and take action.

Unfortunately, while Final Fantasy VI arguably shows more emotion, character backstories and relationships feel barren. Side quests late in the game help show some backstory to each character (game developers, take note- these types of side quests are what we want to see, something that actually plays into the plot, not fetch-quests for exp./money), but the characters still feel one-dimensional. I would have enjoyed hearing more about Shadow’s life, Locke’s childhood, Celes’ movement through the ranks to achieve the title of General, and so on with everyone else. Beyond this, the relationships between characters are weak at best. Love is a common theme between characters, but that’s about it. By the end of the game, party members have formed “clicks” that separate themselves from everyone else. We don’t get to see how friendships form and evolve between the entire party. The party segregates themselves into 9 main groups. See: Locke, Celes, and Terra; Edgar and Sabin; Cyan; Shadow; Gau; Setzer; Mog and Umaro; Relm and Strago; Gogo. When do Strago and Relm become friends with Locke’s click? Is Shadow aware of Gau’s existence? What kind of scene would play out on Setzer’s airship with Mog and Umaro running around? I’ve been spoiled by the tight-knit groups seen in Final Fantasy IV and V, so this felt strange. I even formed by parties based on knowing what interactions during cutscenes would occur, which is unfortunate.

As a side note, who could not love Ultros? The one character that never fit with the game, but was always a joy to see appear. I had a good chuckle seeing one of the three final statue bosses use the Ultros attack (which I did not get Gau to learn, unfortunately). Ultros may be trapped selling tickets to pay off a debt at the coliseum, but everyone seems to know him.

Onwards! I’m still on the fence regarding the game’s difficulty. On one hand, it was by far the easiest of the first six Final Fantasy games, only giving me trouble with some end-game bosses. That’s somewhat disappointing, but it was also nice to have a more relaxing game to play, after the previous entries. It didn’t dawn on me until after I beat the game that I never had to use a guide to figure out where to go next, or how to get through a dungeon. That was a nice change, but not going to hold my breath for games yet to come. I also realized that I rarely fled from random battles during the game, even the final dungeon. That’s completely opposite of at least Final Fantasy II through V.

However, I might have been over-leveled for much of the game. While I wasn’t too high on the numbered level and stats for characters, my magical abilities may have been above where I should have been in each area. I grinded two or three times in the game solely to increase my party’s magical abilities. As much as I loved the open-endedness of Final Fantasy V’s job system, I also really enjoy systems such as Final Fantasy VI’s Espers. I like being able to put all magical spells on each character (and to be able to do so easily, spending a fraction of the time grinding as I had to do in Final Fantasy V for magic points), and go into boss battles without worries.

It was also neat how magical abilities came from the Espers. This pushed me to collect all of the Espers, because I wanted to be able to put as many magical abilities on my party members as possible, even for spells I would never use. I become a completionist at times, for little reason other than to see a completed screen. I only grinded all magic spells onto seven characters (Locke, Edgar, Sabin, Shadow, Celes, Terra, and Cyan), not including Crusader’s, who I obtained but didn’t care about since I was in the final dungeon.

I also liked how Espers had a secondary function of increasing stat boosts for characters at level-ups. This meant I spent even more time flying through the menu screens to check who was close to level up, and what Esper was equipped at the time. I only wish that could have been more streamlined, as I probably spent too much time in the menu screens constantly checking. By the final dungeon, I didn’t care who had what equipped and what bonuses may or may not have been attributed. I was plowing through to the end.

While being able to give every party member the exact same magic eliminated the differentiation between characters (as seen in prior entries in the series), the personal abilities more than made up for the change. I rarely used Locke’s Steal or Terra’s Morph, but relied heavily on using Edgar’s Tools (loved Chainsaw), Sabin’s Blitzes (loved Bum Rush), and Shadow’s Throw (when he was in the party). If I play the game again someday, I’ll try to learn more Rages for Gau, as there look to be many of them, and that could have been quite fun.

Finally, I feel I need to touch upon the final dungeon. Splitting up the party was really annoying every time it occurred in the game. It was frustrating every time because I never knew what kind of enemies I’d be facing, how long the dungeon was, etc. I enjoyed the last dungeon, but probably would have more so if I were able to control a single party (but obviously that would mean a less strategic and eventful final battle against Kefka’s forms- unless the airship came swooping down during the pre-battle cutscene, with all the other party members).

I did enjoy the last dungeon, though. I thought I had a great strategy going into that dungeon. The three parties were as follows:

Team 1: Locke, Sabin, Strago, Celes

Team 2: Edgar, Shadow, Setzer, Terra

Team 3: Cyan, Gau, Umaro, Mog

Notice how team 3 is extremely weak and limited compared to the others. Cyan had plenty of magic spells, but Mog only had a few spells and only up to Life 2 and Cure 3 (but was missing Cure 2 for some reason). Gau had no spells, and Umaro obviously doesn’t have any. I did this because Mog had the Moogle charm, and could explore the final dungeon freely without worry of random battles. Little did I know that mini-bosses would be scattered throughout. Team 1 fought a statue mini-boss and the Skull dragon- no problems at all. Team 2 fought one statue mini-boss (and skipped Atma- I got destroyed the one time I tried) - no problems either. Team 3 had to fight the Inferno mini-boss, the Gold Dragon, and then a statue boss, Doom. These three battles were the hardest and most strategic I had in the game, behind only Kefka’s final form. The first time I fought the Doom statue, Cyan, Gau, and Mog were killed off quite quick, and Umaro fought by himself for over 20 minutes. I put down the controller, and watched. Since Doom kept using Ice attacks, it kept healing Umaro. Umaro would heal Doom for around 1,300 with Ice Storm, but for every time he did, he dealt over 3,000 damage in other attacks. Unfortunately Doom’s second form killed Umaro, but I was very hopeful that I’d beat one of the last bosses in the game without pressing a button. The second time I was able to keep most party alive the whole battle- sorry Gau. I originally hated myself for forming the third party as such, but after those three battles was very proud of what I was able to accomplish with such a strange team.

And to top it off, the most interesting boss battle of the Final Fantasy series up to that point, Kefka. I really didn’t understand the set-up beforehand, with 12 spots open. But after Shadow died and was replaced in Kefka’s second form battle, I immediately understood. At that point, while the battles were really quite easy (thanks to everyone spamming Ultima, and the occasional Cure 3 to heal), I became more aware of the boss’ attacks. I tried to figure out when the attacks would change and signal the boss having half or low health, to insure that I could keep all of my party members alive. I did not want to enter the final form with a weak party member. Unfortunately, that came halfway true. Upon entering Kefka’s final form, I was left with Locke, Sabin, and Terra, which was great. I had not yet seen Celes, the last useful party member after having lost Shadow and Edgar. Cyan joined the battle, to my dismay. He was good for healing, but had low health and really didn’t do much except for cast Ultima a few times. That was a really neat and fun entire battle.

So there are my thoughts on Final Fantasy VI. Gameplay time was around 52 hours, well above any of the others, and sadly an increasing trend that won’t stop until around…um…maybe Lightning Returns? Or Crisis Core if that counts? I honestly think that VII, VIII, IX, X, X-2, XII, XIII, and XIII-2 are all at least 80 hours each. Hopefully they’re all worth the time investments. Six games down, only ten games left!

Game time so far:

Final Fantasy: 25 hours

Final Fantasy II: Unknown?

Final Fantasy III: Unknown?

Final Fantasy IV: Unknown?

Final Fantasy V: 42 hours

Final Fantasy VI: 52 hours

And of course, to end this post, my personal rankings at this point in time, from best to worst:

Final Fantasy VI

Final Fantasy V

Final Fantasy IV

Final Fantasy II

Final Fantasy

Final Fantasy III