Is the Final Fantasy VII Remake a Good Thing?

I think I might be getting older. When the FFVii remake got announced yesterday I went through a bunch of emotions. Nostalgia, happiness, joy, surprise. And then the day went on, I played some GTA Online with my mates and had a think. FFVii was the game that introduced JRPGs to me. I've played a hell of a lot of Final Fantasy in my time, and skipped a couple due to circumstance, but you always remember your first. It set the bar for me, an RPG needs to have engaging characters, interesting scenarios and a fun battle system to pique my interest, because these games are LONG. No one wants to put 40 hours into something like Legend of Legaia (if you did, well... good on you, I could only manage about 10 and lost interest and I LIKE games like that).

Then the worry set in. A lot of FFVii is weird. I will admit that. Theres the whole hidden affection rating shenanigans that decides which of the ladies you get to go on a date with. Theres the minigames. Oh god, are they going to remake the minigames in HD? Let's talk about the minigames. The wiki lists around 25 different minigames, ranging from riding a bike and fending off soldiers with your massive blade (which is badass) to the fairground attractions at the Gold Saucer (most of which are terribad).

My worry is, are they going to remake all of these? Some of them fit really well into the story and are also really fun in their own right, but a lot of them? Not so much. Theres the CPR minigame for instance. Do we really need that redone in HD? And will it look weird? Is it even viable to redo the minigames in HD? Will the story suffer without them? And holy fuck are they going to get voice actors for the cast? What if they suck? WHAT IF TIFA SOUNDS AWFUL!?

See, I wasn't lying about the CPR minigame.

I think a lot of the worry stems from my love for this game. I understand that the graphics are very dated nowdays, it was early 3D and it does not hold out well at all. Final Fantasy VI by comparison LOOKS better, because it was the end of the sprite era and they had nailed that shit. With Vii, and its weird looking SD (super deformed) character models with no mouths and massive bodybuilder arms, it looks like a 3D modelling students first attempt at making character models. And nowadays there would at least be some anti-aliasing on that shit.

And then theres the question of the World Map. To the best of my knowledge, there hasn't been a proper world map in a major Final Fantasy since IX? I think? X had a system where you could kind of walk from one side of the world to the other, but it was more paths and roads, and XIII was critiscised for being one corridoor of enemies after another. A game that did world maps well in the PS2 era was Dragon Quest VIII, with a fully fleshed out map you could walk around in with treasures to find and caves and such. I don't need them to make FFViis map into a Skyrim-esque place, but I wonder if they'll cut it and just have a list of places to warp to. The world map has an important place in Vii though. It's after the afore-mentioned awesome motorbike minigame, where you're escaping from the city. You manage to escape from Midgar, a huge industrial city where you've spent the entirety of the game so far. Then you see it. It's there on the map and the whole world is laid before you and you think. Holy shit, this is going to be a big game.

I have a sinking feeling in me that they're going to cut a lot of the content out. They're going to "streamline" the experience. Hell, they're definitely going to redo the battle system to something new. Probably with a lot of really glowy lines and runes and stuff. Why stop there though? Why not streamline some of the characters? Let's make sure EVERYONE finds out about Zack Fair so that people don't miss that plot point.

You don't know who this guy is? DON'T WORRY ABOUT IT.

I'm going to buy the hell out the FFVii remake. And I am going to finish it. There is no doubt in my heart of hearts about that. But it's not going to stop me from worrying that a lot of it might look wonky in HD, and whether or not losing that wonkiness will detract from the charm of the whole game.

AwesomeCake Image Extravaganza

I was cleaning out my phones photo gallery today, when I found a few gems here and there. Thought I'd put them all into one post for maximum laughs. 

So enjoyabry (I am going to hell).

 Most of these photos are example of awesome engrish I have found on toys and such at MH's. Although sometimes...

It's just a misspelling. Still, that's an awesome cambo. 

I used to be just really cool with my stylings. Then I got this laser pistol and became ULTRA COOL MEGA STYLING. 

I remember posting this one to Twitter, ( that's this thing over here ) But it was still pretty funny. This is Hulk BOXING. 

Zeus is moonlighting in Ben10 apparently. That would be a pretty OP thing to transform into. You know, the King of the Gods and all that...

Nothing to see here. Just some ponies living an alternative lifestyle. Totally their choice... 

Yeah... I just thought that was a pretty suggestive pose. Maybe that's just me? 

This really needs something next to it for scale...but it's a really tiny door. Perhaps it's a dwarf factory? 

No one loses when they buy these corn sticks. They're what you might call... a no losing situation. No wait, that's not right... 

The rest of these images are from The Hibiscus Festival. I shall let them speak for themselves. Wilson also has an awesome post from 2007 (Wow...) about Hibiscus if you compare the photos he has in this post though, it looks like they've repainted a few of the rides. And well... need to repaint a lot of their signage >.< 

Hardcore Mode: The Desert

So that temple I found the other day was definitely worth exploring...

And yes, I did manage to explore off the edge of the map I had crafted. I didn't even realize it and ended up quite lost. Normally this isn't a huge deal, you can wander about until you find your way home. But on hardcore mode I started to get... paranoid. That in itself is a comic for another day. 

Raboci

She is quite the linguist, my girlfriend is. 

Minecraft: Hardcore Mode

I've been playing a bit of Minecraft lately, and I found that since the last time I had played, they'd added a new Hardcore mode to the game. It's different from the normal survival mode in that you can't change the difficulty at all and upon your death the entire world is deleted. Forever.

So, the masochist in me decided to start a Hardcore world and see how far I could get. The results...

I'm currently on my third go, and I've gotten much further this time. I've got a little farm going with some chickens and wheat to avoid travelling far for food. Have set up a little fortress outside my mine to shoot monsters from relative safety, and always travel with a map in tow. I'm currently dividing time between searching for diamonds and finding a village, so I can try out the new trading system.

Home sweet home. 

On my last exploratory venture I found this right before I had to go to work.

Ruddy mysterious.

Apparently, it's a Desert Temple, and although part of me wanted to explore it straight away the new careful part of my brain that has developed thanks to Hardcore mode made me stop and look it up. A good thing too, because there's a TNT trap in there that would have blown me up if I hadn't been careful. Although, that would have made for an excellent comic. 

On The Border

I got Nakita to play Borderlands this weekend. Here's how that went: 

Also, it was my birthday last week, I am now 23 years old. Yes, I'm getting older. However, I am extremely lucky to have wonderful friends who got me very very drunk on my birthday and an amazing and beautiful girlfriend who carried me home and cooked an amazing dinner for everyone that night. Also, she made this kickass Pokeball cake. I mean, look at this thing: 

And it was deliciously super effective.

I think this is going to be a great year.

Friday Night Drawin's

Stuff I been draw today. That is all. 

Crusade of the Guardian

One my favorite games when I was little, was a game called Guardians Crusade on the Playstation. It was a super simple RPG, turn based combat, bright colors, a Tamagotchi/Pokemon-like pet and collectibles galore. So, I did some fanart for it, years ago. And then some more a couple years later. 

This and Wild Arms were the games that made me love RPGs. Speaking of Wild Arms... there's a game I haven't done any fanart for a while now...

Goblin Drake Slayer

The few, the elite. The slayers of Drakes. 

A Conversation between Comrades

Did a little bit of a Rule 63 with some old characters I used to doodle in high school. Short post is short. 

Addendum to Ember Lancin'

I explained each of the classes to my girlfriend as she sat in front of the character creation screen for Torchlight. That's the Destroyer, he's like a big tank of a guy. Hits things with swords and axes and stuff. And that one is the Alchemist, he has magical spells and the ability to summon little imps and robots. And that one is the Vanquisher, she's good with bows and stuff. Throws traps that explode and shock people and that. 

She chose the Vanquisher because it's the one with the girl character model :P 

Ember Lance For the Win

Playing through Torchlight again. Since part 2 is coming out soon I wanted to finish the game as the Alchemist. Also been working on a new way of shading the artworks. Will probably have to get two copies though, since it's no fun playing the same single player game as your girlfriend does right next to each other :P  

FFFFFFFFFFF

In an attempt to get something new to play on my phone apart from Pokemon, I got Fire Emblem. It seemed like a good idea at the time, A turn based fantasy strategy RPG. From Japan. Yay! What I didn't know was that it was ridiculously unforgiving. 

If one of your units dies they're gone for good, I am not sure if there is any way to resurrect them short of cheating. What this means, if you're like me, is that I can't finish a chapter unless I clear it perfectly. Which means a lot of restarting. A lot.

Moving In

The comic IS the post! Whoa! 

Almost a Real Post

In lieu of an actual post, here is a doodle I drew today that I worked on and worked on until it ended up looking like this.

Here's the original which I did with pencil, blue pen, a marker and some alligator colors. (Not actually made of alligators). I also like how it looks in mono, so theres that too. 

And lastly, some detail shots.

Remember, adventure is out there! 

In the Glade of the Elephant

Just got back from Savusavu after the long Easter weekend. I had this sketch which I was kinda proud of, so here's the final result after coloring and stuff.

And also because I haven't made a GIF in a while, here's one of those too!

Sure, his legs look wonky, but at least I made an attempt instead of trying to Rob Liefeld it and hide them.

Look at this sexy mofo

Magicman does whatever a Magicman can.

That's the welfare tier 13 robe, yes it is. Since the new scroll of bringing people back with crazy benefits and playing WoW again, Seedus the mage has actually been able to do a raid and kill the dude on the box. The whole "killing the big baddie on the box" has always been an issue with me. Ever since I started playing Warcraft, either my lack of ability to sink time or find a good guild or have a decent internet connection has never allowed me to raid. With super easy Raid Finder raids though, I've done it. Yes, it was easier than it should be, yes it was with a group of strangers, but still, I did. So, props to Blizz for making casual raiding a reality. 

This might be worst screenshot of the Deathwing fight ever. 

Does it mean less though? Not taking down the big bad Deathwing in a challenging and rewarding way? I have been playing this game for years. I'm just glad I got to see the fight to be honest. 

Rawr.

And it's not like the gear is the best, so to get the upper level stuff, it would be more of a challenge. I felt a bit bad this morning when the chestpiece dropped and a Druid whispered me asking if he could have it. Then an awesome trinket dropped, which I won the roll for, and he couldn't believe it. It does come down to luck when getting items in LFR, and maybe if I had better gear I might have given it to him. But they were upgrades and I won the roll, should I feel guilty? If I'd won the roll on the shoulders then...actually I would have kept em, because everyone knows that shoulders make up 50% of a set. 

Bear Stealth mode activated.

Now I will get Gambito the Troll Druid to max level, and then see how I feel. I like Warcraft, it's a polished and huge game, and running dungeons with my mates is always the best. Am I interested in purchasing Mists of Pandaria? I'm leaning towards yes right now, but we'll see when it gets closer to release. I have a soft spot for Seedus, and taking him on a holiday to a mystical land full of panda people sounds like a good reward for him.