Pero los señores de $quare€nix vieron otro factor más en el nombre: marca, imagen, DINERO. Conmemorando el décimo aniversario del lanzamiento del juego sacaron una compilación formada por juegos, libros, películas, etc (Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children (DVD, UMD), Before Crisis: Final Fantasy VII (Móvil), Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII (PSP), Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII (PS2), Final Fantasy VII: Last Order (DVD, UMD), Dirge of Cerberus Lost Episode: Final Fantasy VII (Móvil), Final Fantasy VII: Snowboarding (Móvil), The Maiden Who Travels the Planet (Libro), On the Way to a Smile (Libro).

Este verano me he pasado el FFVII: Crisis Core, también he visto Advent Children y las OVAS (esto nada más salir), pero me faltaba el Dirge Of Cerberus. Los juegos y películas anteriormente citados cumplían su función más que correcta, destacando el Crisis Core, que es el que explica más partes de la trama. El Dirge of Cerberus lo compré hace ahora como un año pero no llegué a jugarlo por tener otros juegos delante. Sin embargo, hace poco lo vi en mi estantería y dije, "joder, vamos a pasárnoslo que es el único que me falta de la compilación".

Ya me lo he pasado. Sé que había recibido muchas críticas pero yo siempre soy de jugarlos y luego opino. El juego es una OFENSA y un ATENTADO contra los jugones. Niveles pobres, pésimo sistema de control, IA paupérrima...se salva sólo que el personaje principal es Vincent Valentine, uno de los grandes de FFVII. El juego nos lleva a lugares anteriormente visitados y hace despertar nuestra vena nostálgica pero, quitando este factor, el juego no merece la compra. Han mancillado la saga FFVII en todas y cada una de sus facetas. Como juego de acción cualquiera del mercado puede hacerle frente. ¿Entretiene? Pues sí, pero cualquiera le supea, incluso me recordó a uno de los primeros de PS2, siendo éste incluso superior (ONI, PS2).

¿Qué nos deparará $quare€nix?

Fuente: Wikipedia y elaboración propia.

Anyway! Good news is that Skip Beat PV is out! Check it!

Can't wait to see it!! Cuz IMO the manga is good! Not the usual shoujo girl that tries to win her crush but instead she vows revenge! *w* She is awesome! and I'm lalalala~ because Mamoru Miyano is there! As the "bad guy" that later realizes that he actually likes her but after she becomes strong enough to fight him! *o*  AND he SINGS!! We can here Mamoru singing again! Ok not sure about that but his character is a singer so i guess he will sings since it would not m=be the first time singing for the character aka Setsuna F. Seie~ and Tamaki Souo* are some examples x3

Now about the desings, well not as good as the manga of course. It actually looks like a cheap shoujo anime but! I will see it notheless... -w- I think it will have 26eps, like any shoujo... (Dunno WHY THE HELL japanese people make GOOD shoujo so SHORT! Like SA!! BOY the end was.... ok i guess, it has such a bright future! Shugo Chara is being brutalized with SO MANY fillers! OURAN was cut also with 26 eps , although i must say that that was the best shoujo ending i have ever seen so far and VK is doing well since they are actually following the manga XO) ...sorry about that just a normal fangirl letting her emotions and thoughts out ^-^

So until next time!!!

PD: Apologizing again for the absence since this was our 50th post and since we have reached over 2000 hits some days ago we wanted to make something to celebrate aka with the Amazing Room, but we don't have time yet so...sorry guys. Hopefully the Amazing Room will be up soon.

What is Amazing Room? It's the short for Bluish and Pourpre's Amazing Room, where we will upload all the crazy, random and funny things that happen to us when we are together *w* + some Zack Fair worshiping LOL

The Summons of Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core (PSP)

Rating: 9.5 Out of 10

The long awaited Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII comes to the PSP and it is great. This game has Final Fantasy fans wanting more with a great combat system, an amazing story from the cinematics to the dialogue, graphics, and music. Crisis Core brings what Final Fantasy VII fans have wanted for a long time with appearances from characters you have come to know. However, you can't control the DMW limits or leveling up, seems random. Also, the combat is a little bit easy. Overall though, if you are a fan of the Final Fantasy VII series, you must get this game.

Pros:

+ Incredible and poignant story, starring a likable and complex hero

+ Every aspect of the production design, from cutscenes to voice acting, is utterly amazing

+ The DMW is a weird but fun way of leveling up

+ Enjoyable and addictive combat

Cons:

- Combat is on the easy side

- Player has no control over limit breaks and leveling

Extras:

# Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Cheat Codes

# Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII - Music File - The Price of Freedom

Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core - At the beginning by Donna Lewis/Richard Marx

Posted by queenofamerica on YouTube

I love the movie that this song comes from. I liked how the director took scenes we've all seen before but cut them short, so that they're new and refreshing. Instead of a bunch of long scenes we all practical have memorized, we've got a bunch of short but good scenes. The shot of Zack's(?) eye was one I've never scene before. Even thought they used clips of Cloud from Advent children, you still feel that your watching Zack.

4/5

Final Fantasy VII: Crisi Core + Advent Children - Remember when it rained by Josh Groban

Posted by queenofamerica on YouTube

Well, there's nothing super incredible in this video to make me rate it a 5/5, but it is good, the only thing I don't like, but which can't be helped is that the clips simply move faster than the song. But that's the way they were 'filmed'. A solid 4/5. A nice song with complimentary clips. The last third of the film is weaker than the beginning. I think with this song it could have just been worked into simply a cloud/Zack video. Aerith seems kinda out of place.

4/5

Final Fantasy VII, Last Order, Crisis Core, Advent Children, Dirge of Cerberus, VIII, IX, X, X-2, XIII, XIII Versus - How far we've come by Matchbox 20

Posted by SteveAAF on YouTube

What I like about this video, it that it's noncommittal to any of the many Final Fantasy's it uses. It draws from many sources to create one big thing that can't be pinned down to any specific one. (but saying that is dose tent to favor VII & it's many incarnations) It's cued nicely, and works well with the song.

4/5

Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children & Crisis Core - A lot like me by The offspring

Posted by Sephiroth316 on YouTube

A really well done video. This particular user strives to keep the viewers undivided attention till the very end of all of his videos, and I think he fully succeeded with this one. It's simplistic, and you arn't distracted with the transitions at all. really clean and simple.

5/5

Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core - Bring me to life by Evanescence

Posted by Amidamaru2193 on YouTube

While it doesn't take cues from the music, it dose work very nicly. It leaves some to be desired, but over all is refreshing.

3/5

The story, which is about as deep as a pudding cup, centers on Zack, a minor character from FF7, and his rise and fall in the SOLDIER mercenary group employed by the Shin-Ra (Shinra?) Electric Company. After ending the war with Wutai, an East Asian-inspired nation resisting Shin-Ra's building of "progressive" power reactors on their soil, Zack's superiors Angeal and Genesis rebel from the company/army/Backgammon club. To complicate matters, clones of Genesis run amok thanks to the mad science of Hollander, an ex-Shinra researcher. Zack, and sometimes legendary SOLDIER/fangirl pin-up Sephiroth (in a benign role for a nice change), must deal with all these issues. Since Zack dies before the events of FF7, Crisis Core is the most dreaded of franchise cash-ins, the prequel. Some prequels are nice and illuminating, even better than the originals - The Hobbit and Metal Gear Solid 3, for example. Others are full of midichlorians and Gungans. Guess which category Crisis Core falls into.

The new characters, conveniently killed or dragged off to who-knows-where before the tattered curtain closes, are the worst part of the story. They're just alternate versions of already existing FF7 characters. Genesis is by far the worst. He's the proto-Sephiroth, which would make him the main villain though I guess he isn't supposed to be seen as a villain because he used to hang with Angeal and Sephiroth. They were like the Snap, Crackle and Pop of Shinra before Genesis went nuts, commanding an army of clones and killing people and doing whatever. He's, like, tragic or something. Or he would be if he didn't suck and wasn't annoying. Every time he shows he spouts horrendous quotes from Loveless, a fake play in the world of FF7.

Loveless started out in FF7 as a simple graphic, an advertisement somewhere in the environment of the game's first major location, Midgar. To my knowledge it is never seen or mentioned in the game again. To take that little speck of mise en scene and develop it into something more isn't a bad idea. Sadly, it's a wasted one and very little is to be expected from Crisis Core's writers anyway. Each time Genesis shows up he's got three or four more Loveless quotes to punish players with. Juicy examples include "The monster has been harvested" and "Legend shall speak of sacrifice at world's end. The wind sails over the water's surface quietly, but surely." That last one gets repeated at least 12 times, sometimes in a row. It's difficult to communicate the full scale of awfulness in those lines without the slow, fake lyrical tones the voice actor woefully employs. Apparently, the embarrassing high school goth poetry that passes as Genesis' Loveless quotes is supposed to parallel the actions and events of Crisis Core, but the feeling is lost since it's unclear what the hell anyone is doing anyway. Wouldn't it have been fruitful if the player could attend Loveless in a FF6-style Opera sequence? Or if Loveless was available to read or watch, or if it was SOME part of the story besides vague, meaningless quotes used in the game's primary dialogue? How did Square even let this garbage into the script? Well, they named a character Genesis so I guess that answers that. At least he didn't quote the Bible.

Angeal is the other "important" new character, the Qui-Gon Jinn to Zack's Obi-Wan. He's a Robert Z'Dar look-alike who spouts simple maxims about bravery and honor, which rings hollow and gets really boring hearing over and over. No wonder he and Genesis were such good pals. Angeal's all about courage and honor yet he does nothing to inspire courage and honor except say "Remember folks, dreams and honor, always" and "Remember Zack, dreams and honor." "Dreams and honor, dreams and honor, dreams and honor."

Zack, the poor trusting schmo, falls for Angeal's simplistic rhetoric. Angeal also carries a big phallic sword around as the symbol of courage, or so he says, and the sword eventually becomes Zack's. He also kills his mother apparently, for some reason. Who knows. He also gets cloned eventually, or is a clone, or a monster, or turns into a monster, and apparently other people can turn into him and that's supposed to be surprising down the line. It was completely lost on me. Oh and he hails from a town famous for its "dumbapples", which are ... blue apples!

...

It makes me angry just thinking about this guy and his baseball glove-shaped face. What's his motivation? Why does he do anything?! WHY DOES ANYONE DO ANYTHING?! DUMBAPPLES? ANGEAL? GENESIS? Who at Square is responsible the names in this game?!

NONE of the characters have a clear motivation. There's little reason to care for any of them and I dreaded, and then yawned, each time they appeared. With the exception of maybe hentai target Cissnei, a female member of the Turks (Shinra's special clean-up squad) who is a dead ringer for Hermione from Harry Potter. She was the only character I looked forward to seeing again. I have no reasonable explanation as to why except she was nice she, had a neat pinwheel weapon and wasn't another airheaded RPG female. Or maybe she is?! Who knows! Perhaps I liked the simple fact her dialogue wasn't bad and her background wasn't revealed. Sometimes a little mystery is a good thing, something prequels inherently shatter.

Familiar faces do show up, like Cloud, Aeris (now Aerith - kind of lispy in my opinion) and Tseng, who do little else but reassure fans "yeah, way to go, you're playing another FF7 spin-off." They're also reassuring characters in the way they're always a relief to see because the rest of the lousy cast. The smartest decision in the whole game is the Tifa Lockhart cameo, who's decked out in a souped-up version of the midriff-baring cowgirl get-up she wears in the FF7 flashback sequence. Vroom vroom!

Aerith - I still don't see her appeal. Well, that's not true, I do. She's an ideal more than a character - she's the simplistic waifu who Zack wants to return home to during his near-the-end-of-the-game Odyssey impression, and I suppose that's worthy fighting monsters and Shinra soldeirs for. But as a character she's sweet as candy and about as interesting. Good for Zack for being able to carry a conversation with her even if it consists mostly to pandering to her neurotic cuteness. Would anyone really trust someone so ... cute?

Zack, the main character, isn't even that developed. He can be summed up thusly: he's a nice guy. Why does he help Cloud when they meet? Cuz he's a nice guy! That's about it. Their interactions feel about as honest and real as the buddy-buddy scenes between Anakin and Obi-Wan in Star Wars Episode III, though perhaps a tiny bit artistically superior. This is treading spoiler territory now even though it's known lore to fans anyway, but the passing of the torch at the end feels awkward. He barely knows Cloud. But he's such a nice guy y'know, he might as well entrust Cloud with the memory of his existence! Zack's hokum philosophy that he cribs from Angeal pretty much fucks Cloud's mind up big time. Despite that the transfer of the Main Character License winds up the best moment in the story. The cutscene direction goes beyond mediocre into something quite nice although it has its share of eye-rolling problems too. Just as the game finally does something worthwhile (which, uh, was done already in FF7) a pop song and cliche anime imagery sets in. I can't count the number of times I've seen angel wings (Genesis, and eventually Angeal sport single wings, a clear reference to Sephiroth's theme tune "One Winged Angel") and angel feathers and apples in a product from Japan. Even Zack is ret-conned to get a "cross scar" like Rurouni Kenshin. Cloud might as well be another, blonder version of the guilt-ridden Kenshin. In the end he's covered in blood, traumatized, and making a promise. As a series that endlessly cribs Dragon Ball Z, Berserk, Evangelion and various other anime mainstays it shouldn't surprise that FF7 adds one more to its stable of inspirations.

However, just like FF7, the story and characters could be better than what the dumb, awkward translation would have you believe though it's doubtful it's any better in the original Japanese. A character named Lazard introduces himself as "It's Lazard", the literal translation of "Lazard desu" which is not just lazy, it's downright confusing in the context of his appearance. It's unbelievable. Japanese language textbooks aren't even that stilted. The whole script is like this and it's all slow-paced, mush-mouthed bullhockey.

To make matters even worse you can't skip cutscenes and the longest ones always happen before the hardest bosses. The game's pretty easy anyway but then suddenly DIFFICULT BOSS because you don't have the right materia equipped. After a few more minutes of loading data from the title screen, going into the menu, optimizing equipment then running over to where the scene starts you gotta go through seven minutes of ("No way ... you just ate my hair!") the poorest writing. Seven minutes of cutscenes in a portable game? What. Were. They. Thinking?

There's little to write about the game itself. It is tiresome, nap-inducing buttonmashing. The player just has to press the X button over and over, a lot like Kingdom Hearts, another of Square's overrated output. Aside from some aesthetic differences in the interface it's the exact same game. You can attack, cast magic or do special moves and you select them awkwardly via manic button presses in real-time. There is a random slot machine thing that occasionally casts powerful spells and beneficial status changes but without any direct input from the player the game is just playing itself. Randomly. You get a fantastic, time-consuming attack against an insignificant bug in any random battle, but you can go a whole boss fight with nothing helpful. Sometimes the slot thing will roll with no result at all! It'll just interrupt your playing for a flashing display of faces and numbers! It's as confounding as Blernsball from Futurama, without the fun.

The one time the game was almost fun and challenging was the boss fight against Hollander. You spend half the game chasing down the fucker, listening to his bullshit about clones and "S cells" and then you finally get to thrash his dumb ass. It's the one time the game has fun with itself too. Hollander pours worms out of a bag and tosses gigantic missiles at you. It's baffling. You have to use magic, items, dodge and pay close attention and it's like the one time the game comes together into something decent.

Then the game refuses to end. It reaches a climax, or what sure as hell feels like one, then it's artificially lengthened by dopey mini-game diversions and endless cutscenes. At one point Zack has to shoot at enemy robots with a sniper rifle. There's no narrative reason why or anything, there just happen to be sniper rifles littered all over the ground and he - er, you, the player - has to run up to them, pick them up, aim and fire. It's excruciating.

The last dungeon breaks the game's mold by not only being a series of shoebox-like areas with boring design (another clear trace of its Kingdom Hearts heritage), it's a momentum-obliterating fetch quest for keys to open the door to the dumb final boss, whose only challenge is his ungodly amount of HP, making for a very long fight. It's insulting how long they pad this out. Doesn't anyone at Square playtest their games? Don't they realize games should be FUN? And stories should make SENSE?

The music isn't that good either, unless you like to hear the same guitar tunes over and over - the best music is reprises from FF7. The graphics, as always, are Square's strong suit. Surprisingly, Crisis Core is one of the very few games to have a New Game+ mode but I won't make use of it. Why couldn't a game I would actually like to replay like FF12 have this feature? There is also a large amount of extra missions outside of the main campaign. Hmm, no thanks.

The whole FF7 endeavor is unfortunate. The whole Square situation is unfortunate. After all the time spent in development this is the game and story we get? And what's next? Endless Kingdom Hearts sequels on every platform, a Compilation of Final Fantasy 13 franchise (three new games!), and a Final Fantasy fighting game. Jeeeesus Christ, is it cynical to expect nothing from them?

Experience says "no."

(No amount of Wikipedia searching or FF7 fan board browsing would shed light on the plot of Crisis Core. If anyone can offer an airtight explanation to me about what exactly Genesis was trying to accomplish or what Angeal's or Hollander's or anyone's deal was, please, I'm all ears. All the luck in the world to you, though. Wikipedia and Final Fantasy-specific wikis failed me already.)

Final Fantasy 7 Advent Children & Crisis Core - Suddenly I see - KT Tunstall

Posted by queenofamerica on YouTube

The only reason I gave this one a four out of five, is because it's a long song, therefore, filler was needed, which ended up being reused footage. It's cute and sweet, I love its fresh point of view (Marlene), but its length and repetition just kind of got to me.

4/5

Anyway, this is my last post all the way till after prelims. Maybe, if I do actually think the exams aren't too bad, then I would post. If not, I'll probably be sitting in the corner sulking 24/7.

No pics this time. :C If you're looking for pics in this post, you'll be sorely disappointed.

Anyway with all these stuff about Olympics, I'm finding it a little hard to concentrate studying. But thankfully nost of my favourite sports sections are already over, so I can actually fully settle down to mug. And yes, sure sure, Singapore got Silver. Pretty good considering we bought over great players from China, which also means we wouldn't win the "lao jiangs" from China itself, right? Oh did I mention that I love Zhang Yining! She's one of my favourite sportswomen. Another one would be Shawn Johnson. Her personality seems awesome.

You know, I've always believed that a sports competitor is great if they do their best to clinch the medals back for their countries. But what's even more amazing is the sportsperson's ability to pull back when they know it's their limit, despite all the crazy amount of pressure put upon them by their country, their fans. and their rivals. It's not called giving up, it's called valuing well-being and Life. Case in point: Liu Xiang. I needn't say more, I think. I believe many already knew what happened during the Games recently. But do not take it to be disappointing - it is in fact quite remarkably courageous of him to admit what he can or cannot achieve at that point of time.

Okok, away from the Olympics, since I could go on for days about it. I'm now currently up to my neck in piles of homework and revision papers. I feel like life is getting more tiresome by the day. If I didn't always believe that there is more to life than this, I might have honestly given up. There's so much pressure, my mind is like on work almost every single minute that I'm in school. Thankfully at home I can relax a little.

What really worries me the most now is the upcoming prelims. I have never had much confidence in my studying abilities, and with good reason. But there's no excuse anymore. I doubt I can ever come up with a good excuse now to put away studying.

So as I listen to "Price of Freedom" and "Melody of Resolution" from the Crisis Core OST, I think to myself, never give up. Like Zack Fair, never give up.

Final Fantasy 7/Advent children/Crisis Core - My Happy ending- Avril Lavigne

Posted by queenofamerica on YouTube

Very well done video. I love how they used what they had and created their own story to go along with the song. Usually these video are so cheesy, but this one was so well done.

5/5

Final Fantasy advent children/crisis core - The Other Boleyn Girl - Footage from Final fantasy to the trailer for the 2008 movie The Other Boleyn Girl

Posted by TheonlyDoylie on YouTube

This is such an incredibly well done video!

And no, it's not about romantic pairings, it's about awesome editing!

This makes me almost want to go see that movie.

5/5

It takes a lot of effort to kill a franchise. ... Okay, maybe it takes a lack of effort, but it takes a certain kind of effort none-the-less. Activision, Square Enix and Nintendo are pretty much the biggest perpetrators here and they each have their own unique way of doing things. One that is really not helping their image.

If you've played Crisis Core on PSP it's probably because you've played Final Fantasy VII. I mean, there's really no reason for you to do so otherwise. Crisis Core was just about the most disappointing game I've played in a long time which is hard to believe considering I was playing Oni right around the same time. The game was a monotonous creep through already told passages, horrible additions to FFVII's timeline and one of the most horrendous cast of characters ever made. A story that leaves the player confused and characters that's can't decide on one state of mind made what was supposed to be a formidable addition to the franchise a bronze-incrusted pile of dirt. This was later followed by The World Ends With You, a DS side-scrolling Action-RPG. Unlike Crisis Core, TWEWY actually had a very good combat system and a fairly robust collection mechanic. Unfortunately, that did very little to stop it from being a stereotypical romp through a predictable story and an uninspired cast of characters. The depressive, emo-state-of-mind teenager pushes off attempts at friendship and wishes the world was nothing than a meaningless void of apathy. Other characters come along and try to help him. He pushes them away. Confrontation with evil! Oh no! He needs to team up! They become friends... all is well. The only audience I've seen playing the game is an audience I steer far away from. The "I like to see Kingdom Hearts characters kissing audience". Of course, I'm not labeling all TWEWY players as such, I'm simply stating what I've seen. With the non-exclusivity deal that went down, Square Enix better make Final Fantasy XIII more than the disappointing XII. If not, I'm just not sure if fans are going to want to keep up with their shenanigans.

Worth mentioning is also Activison and what they're doing with a property they acquired little over a year now. The Guitar Hero franchise. The original Guitar Hero released a few years back and I had the pleasure of getting it as a Christmas gift. I played the game from nearly 6 months until the sequel released, played it and when they released Rocks the 80's, for the first time, I steered clear. I knew the covers were poor, so I didn't purchase it. Then Harmonix had a squabble with RedOctane and left for publisher MTV. Activision picked up RedOctane and stroke a win, since RedOctane held the license for the Guitar Hero brand. While Harmonix set out to create Rock Band, Activision gave the GH license over to Neversoft, who developed III and the upcoming World Tour. I'm all fine with Neversoft developing, I think they're doing a really good job. It's Activision's decision to milk the franchise for all it's got that is really pulling my strings. Harmonix has released 3 Guitar Hero titles in 3 years. (4 games if you count the 360 port of GHII) In two years, Activision has released and planned to release 8 titles. 19 titles if we count platforms as different games. Guitar Hero: On Tour, the DS game, is (in all honesty) a good game, however, a new game is being released 6 months after it's launch. A sequel to it. Not even half a year of development. It's tragic, in a way. Activision is going to kill one of my most beloved game franchises and I can't help but feel hurt by it.

Last, but most certainly not least, is Nintendo. I'll start with saying that I, unlike most gamers, didn't grow up with Nintendo. My first console was a Sega Master System, followed by a Genesis and then followed by a PlayStation. I've been a Sony man since (despite owning and selling an Xbox 360 and a Wii) and I've yet to see why Nintendo fanboys act as they do. Nintendo has, of this date, officially killed off interest in feeding the crowd that made them who they are. They're abandoning the industry they pretty much turned into the entertainment medium that it is. Zelda: Twilight Princess was the same game we've played the N64, Mario Galaxy, while superb in both production values and controls, was ultimately a game that played the same as Super Mario 64. Mario Kart Wii... ... *shudders*. Of course, that's not mentioning the amount of trash that gets thrown onto the system month after month. Ubisoft, I'm looking at you. The fact that the console is being targeted at the 'casual consumer' is bad because when the general public sees all the kiddy shovelware, it creates a stereotype that videogames are for kids. If we wish to evolve the industry beyond what politicians, parents and activists see it as now, this is exactly what we don't need. It was a future I couldn't predict and probably no one could. That being said, they've said they are competing in a totally different market so I don't feel the need to debate it as much. I just wish they wouldn't of tried to run the race in the beginning to suddenly drop out and run on a side course. A side course filled with millions of stupid consumers' money.

Take one part stupidity, one part greed, a dose of marketing and a dash of ignorance and you get a destroyed franchise. It can only go downhill from here with the developers I mentioned though I sincerely hope it doesn't. It wouldn't be good for the industry if it's going to be taken seriously.

I GOT A PSP!!!

So yesterday, I was looking in Wal-Mart, looking at a PSP through the glass panels when my mom walked up. I told her that I was thinking about buying a PSP. I was nothing short of amazed when she asked me if that was what I wanted for my birthday. I thought I was getting a wall scroll and a T-Shirt. I'm still getting the shirt. And I'm buying the wall scroll. Needless to say, I was nothing short of completely and utterly dumbfounded.

Before I go on, you need to understand - I already have a huge array of electronics at my disposal. I have a Nintendo DS Lite, an 80GB iPod, a PlayStation3, a Nintendo Wii [and a GameCube], several computers, a Super Nintendo Entertainment System [SNES], and a huge TV to put it all on. So I could easily and truthfully say I'm technologically dependant enough already, ne?

Yay! *adds to plethora of electronic hardware*

I also got Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core. So far, I'm saying that the game is interesting. At times, the game is laughably easy, and the bad guys are anything but convincing - Genesis' character model is none other than Camui Gackt. In the Japanese version, he also does the voiceover. [Does it say something that I'm willing to buy the Japanese version just to hear the voice coupled with Genesis?] He's done a lot of work with Final Fantasy in the past, though, so I'm not terribly surprised. But I am happy.

Anyway, the storyline so far is pretty cliche as far as Final Fantasy goes: Good guy has mentor/enemy, mentor/enemy leaves, good guy goes after mentor/enemy, life goes on. I am, however, pleased to announce that the game is insanely fun to play. *nods* I haven't really set the PSP down unless I've had to [for a church function last night, I put it down for about three, four hours. And then I played it until 4 in the morning. Life is good.].

Well.

That's about it.

Any suggestions for games I should buy next? I'm thinking about buying 'Need for Speed: Carbon - Rule the Streets', or 'Midnight Club DUB Edition'.

-RYK

Date: [Wednesday] July 30, 2008
Location: Living Room
Music: Season's Call [HYDE]
Mood: Pleased

Hace tiempo hablé de uno de mis juegos favoritos, Final Fantasy VII. Ahora he podido jugar a su precuela, Crisis Core, un capítulo que se centra en el personaje de Zack, uno de los grandes desconocidos de Final Fantasy VII y uno de sus personajes más importantes al mismo tiempo.

Hasta ahora Zack era un miembro de Soldado del que Cloud tomó su vida y recuerdos en parte, además de la persona que ayudó a Cloud a escapar de Shinra y llegar a Midgar. ¿Pero quien era Zack? ¿Qué importancia tuvo en toda esta historia? (Puede contenter spoilers, sigue leyendo bajo tu propia responsabilidad).

Zack era un miembro de Soldado que llegó a ser primera clase tras la guerra de Wutai, pero Zack llegó a este puesto en plena crisis de Shinra, cuando dos de sus soldados de primera clase desertan. Todo esto lleva hasta el echo que ocurrió en Nibelheim, cuando Sephiroth enloqueció y tras lo cual Zack y Cloud fueron capturados como especímenes para experimientos de Hojo. Zack consiguió despertar y huir junto a Cloud, convirtiéndose así en fugitivo de Shinra el último soldado de primera clase que conocemos.

Genesis, Angeal, Sephiroth y Zack, cuatro primera clase que, por unos motivos u otros, fueron dejando atrás las filas de Shinra. Aunque Zack tuvo un motivo distinto y mucho más honorable, las dejó atrás obligado, para conseguir su propia libertad y defender su vida, pero ni aun en esa dificil situación dejó nunca a Cloud, Zack tenía muy claro que la amistad estaba por encima de todo lo demás y siempre tenía una sonrisa para sus amigos.

Cloud tomó el papel de Zack al llegar a Midgar, haciéndose pasar por un primera clase y creyendo que el fue quien acompañó a Sephiroth a Nibelheim, pero Cloud y Zack son muy distintos. Mientras Zack es alegre, charlatán y risueño, Cloud se caracteriza por ser un personaje solitario, callado y extremadamente serio.

Por fin, después de mucho esperar he podido jugar a Crisis Core y conocer a Zack, incluso he tenido que jugar dos veces y aun tengo ganas de más, de seguir viviendo la historia del que, para mi, es ya el verdadero protagonista de Final Fantasy VII. Vivir sus esfuerzos, sus batallas, sus sueños, sus amores y todo aquello que lo hace un personaje tan especial.