Radiant Historia is
a great game. It’s possibly one of the best traditional RPG I have played in a
long time. It’s got turn based battles and a very complex story that even I
have trouble keeping straight in a single play-through. I recently decided I’d
be joining the masses of expectant players logging into Diablo III next week, so I’m trying to get all my current projects
finished before then. It feels unlikely that I’ll finish Radiant Historia and Xenoblade Chronicles since I’m so wrapped up in my obsession to build in Terraria.
While waiting for the polls to close on my “A Breton inSkyrim” blog, I cannot play as Genjo. So I decided to head out with a
new character modeled after Genjo’s friend, Faendal. So far I’ve returned the
Golden Dragon Claw and gotten to the point where dragons spawn randomly so any
Faendal adventures might reflect what Genjo has done in the blog. Faendal is not
going to be “Dragonborn.” He’s simply a ranger working as a lumberjack
in Riverwood. It’s been fun so far.
This game has been the meat and potatoes of my week. Once I
log into it, my entire day is lost. I had an unfortunate accident with my
original character, Crono, so I decided to start a new character on a new world
made on the largest scale. I named her Nara after a character in one of my
stories and she is busy terraforming her world to suit her needs. I also built
my first sprite out of grey blocks. I thought building sprites would be one of
the biggest draws to this game for me. I was right.
This is part of an ongoing series about my favorite memories from video games. You can find the original list and table of contents in last week's post or by clicking here. Please be aware that these posts are going to be full of spoilers which may ruin the impact of these events on anyone who wishes to experience them on their own in the future. I hope you enjoy traveling down my memory lane as much as I do!
#10 - Zack's Death (Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII)
Crisis Core: Final
Fantasy VII was released in the US in 2008 for the Playstation Portable
(PSP). It is the youngest game on my list of greatest memories. It is part of
the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII
which is an ongoing project to pump out more products related to one of the
greatest games Squaresoft (now Square Enix) ever made. Sadly, I find the
Compilation only diluting an otherwise marvelous game experience with
superfluous nonsense that doesn’t add anything substantial to the main product,
Final Fantasy VII. This particular
game is the sixth product to come out in the Final Fantasy VII universe and attempts to provide back story to a
character who is dead shortly before the events of the main attraction. My
personal vote on adding to the Final
Fantasy VII universe would have been to leave well enough alone, but if
pressed I would have told you I was most interested in a prequel.
Unfortunately, all the things we know happened before the
start of Final Fantasy VII are all more or less
settings for missions without much plot or consequence. For example, we know Midgar (Shinra) was at war with Wutai where the villain of VII, Sephiroth was a triumphant war hero, but that still seems to go on in the background of Crisis Core rather than being fully developed. At every aspect where
we could learn more about the history of this world from Final Fantasy VII this game just uses as
a setting from which they launch new ideas, new plots, new antagonists; it's all junk I
honestly don’t care about because when Final
Fantasy VII starts all of these things are never mentioned – almost like
they didn’t happen and have no consequence on the future story!
I consider all this stuff to distract from the powerful
story of Final Fantasy VII rather
than add to it or make it easier to understand. Though you get some interesting
glimpses of Sephiroth before he becomes the tragic villain, the main
draw of the game’s story is the one that actually impacts the events in Final Fantasy VII. That is Zack’s
relationship with Aerith. It’s
unfortunate that they couldn’t have made Wutai a villain and divulge all this
information about the Wutai War that we know next to nothing about. Despite
all these downfalls of the writing choices and the plot direction, the developers really
packaged a surprisingly fun game to play.
You control Zack Fair as he hacks and slashes his way
through this action role-playing game by taking missions from Shinra and
getting to know his SOLDIER (Shinra’s elite) companions. As he forges stronger
relations with his friends and coworkers he gains access to new abilities which
activate whenever his "Digital Mind Wave" slot-machine lines up their portraits. This seemingly
random way to trigger abilities represents Zack’s memory of past events and
people. Trust me when I say it seems kind of silly at first, but this device’s
role in the ending is what makes the game all come together to an amazing
moment. This all amounted to a really fun battle system and I found myself
excited to take on more and more missions and hoping they would test my skills
and my memory-slot-machine luck. I put the story aside and got into this
character and his ability to tear through a battlefield. Zack is a very unusual
protagonist in video games because he’s a prepackaged badass and that was quite
fun and refreshing. He is, of course, unsure of himself due to being surrounded
by greatness like Sephiroth. Nevertheless, Zack holds his own in combat and is amazingly fun to
play.
The Game Needed More of This
What this all comes down to, though, is how do they handle the ending? Will it all tie together with Final Fantasy VII? How will this game handle Zack’s death? I assumed it would
be a cutscene filled with over-emotional dialogue, but the more I played the
game the more I was wishing and hoping I’d get to fight it out. I wanted to
stand on my feet before the countless waves of Shinra soldiers and make my final heroic stand against insurmountable odds. I feared
I would not be allowed to do so, because most games don't use battles to convey strong emotional moments. This isn't true in Crisis
Core and what I got defied all expectations.
Not only does the game allow you to stand off against
innumerable enemies which you can fight until you’re blue in the face (or your
PSP runs out of batteries) if you have the tenacity and the healing items. It also finally makes sense why they wanted to use this random slot-machine to
trigger Zack’s memories. As he battles to his last breath, his life begins to
flash before his eyes via this slot machine. He remembers people and places and
events that give him strength. As the fight goes on the
memories of his comrades begin to fade (stop showing up on the slots) and as
his struggle to survive continues he remembers his mentor, Angeal, and his protégé,
Cloud. When he’s unable to concentrate on anything else the entire slot machine
appears to break, some panels stuck outright and others flickering the same
image over and over – Aerith. Right before Zack succumbs to darkness of death’s
sleep, his only thoughts are of his love, Aerith.
As I played through this battle, most of my mental energy was focused on trying to
last as long as I can on this battlefield. It was surprising and amazing for me
to see how much emotion they jammed into this (predominantly) action scene. I
remember tearing up when I glanced at my slots and saw only Aerith appearing. I
was so touched while playing Zack’s last stand. I expected (like every other moment
of plot in the game) I’d be eye rolling and wondering what the writers were
thinking, but instead I was treated to this innovative way to portray Zack's life flashing before his eyes all while I fight off these swarming soldiers. I was completely blown away. I feel the entire game exists for that
moment. It uses the battle system (and terrible plot) to get me to feel
something for Zack as a character, and then snatches him away while allowing
the player to go out in a blaze of glory. It’s just an incredible experience
and I wish the rest of the game had matched that amount of expression.
Zack and Aerith
It’s hard
to recommend people play a game I’m not terribly fond of just to get to one of
the most amazing scenes that I've experienced gaming. Though I was disappointed with most of the game's plot, the ends did justify the means. I was happy to have slogged through the terrible dialogue and unnecessary drama just to make it to this final battle. Though I wish the entire game could have maintained this level of intense emotional exploration and tied in with more of Final Fantasy VII, I'm also content to just throw it all away and hone in on that final moment of struggling to live and watching life slip away from a true hero. It was truly an epic ending.
I picked up Radiant
Historia quite some time ago and only got about 20 hours in before being
distracted by something else (I’m looking at you, Skyrim). After playing quite a bit of Xenoblade Chronicles, I really wanted a quality game I could play
on the go and remembered I had left this game unfinished. I decided to start
from scratch and am quite enjoying my current play-through. I manage to get
totally absorbed in the story, and I really enjoy how the battles can be more
challenging than the average game. They require extra planning and utilizing
the battlefield.
This picture is the result of my hard egg hunting at work.
Not to mention fully upgraded sets of Mythic armor that I build with the mana I
made selling extra eggs. The game just added the 3rd chapter in the Lost
Eternia Shards featuring a sunken city, Aquanos, and devious Sharken monsters.
Though my interest in the game has slowed down somewhat, I’m still logging
quite a few hours a week – especially when my friends are on and wanting to
defend some dungeons.
It’s been over a month since I logged some time in Skyrim. I
decided to wake Genjo up and get him moving again. He’s got an audience to
appease. He was sent to bring a bandit leader to justice and found an entire
encampment completely dead when he got there. Read more about it on my
ancillary blog, “A Breton in Skyrim.” I’m also thinking of playing the boring
adventures of Faendal the Wood Elf (a resident of Riverwood) but my attempts to
model a character after him have left me feeling unimpressed.
Terraria has
stolen a lot of my attention lately. You create a character that resembles a
Super Nintendo sprite and are thrown into a hostile world full of things to
find and only your imagination to limit what you can build. Fighting monsters
and building giant forts is every kid’s dream. It’s only better when you can do
it in SNES graphics. I got hooked on this game watching a YouTube video series
that I’ve linked below. I’m on Episode 72 – the farthest I’ve ever watched any
web series. It still manages to entertain and inspire my future adventures in
Terraria.
The plot of Xenoblade
Chronicles is really starting to interest me. Lately it’s been popular to
make a show or movie or game very mysterious and tease me with intriguing
little carrots but then really disappoint me in the end. I like to blame Lost and M. Night Shyamalan, but whoever
is to blame I am really starting to think Xenoblade
Chronicles isn’t going to be counted among the giant disappointments of a
good build up. I really feel it will all comes together in the end. I’ll let you know (in a rant) if it doesn’t, I’m
sure.
I recently mentioned Samus Aran taking off her Chozo power suit and revealing herself to be a woman in the original Metroid was #1 on my personal list of Most Memorable Moments in video games. I decided that I'd have to actually publish a more complete list of moments. In order to do each moment justice, however, I decided I'd write an entire article about each one after kicking off with the initial list. So today is the prelude to a 10-week project and should read more or less like a table of contents for things to come. First, I need to lay down a few simple criteria/clarifications.
Point 1 - These are all games I have personally played.
As with any opinion, results may vary. I want to be clear that these are my most memorable moments which is based entirely on my own experiences playing these games at the time that I played them. There may be other scenes in other games that blow these out of the water, but I may not have played them or I may have played them at a time when the moment was ruined by prior knowledge which would lessen the impact.
Point 2 - These are all events scripted into the game.
All player-driven or randomly generated events will be excluded. I wrote an article about my campaign to defeat Ifrit in Final Fantasy XIV which was monumentally memorable, but the challenge and coordinated effort of that struggle was completely player-driven and would vary from person to person. Similarly, I've had many exciting adventures in Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim that involved multiple dragons showing up to ruin my day, but as they were randomly generated I don't consider it a natural part of the game. My intent is to present scripted events that everyone will experience in roughly the same way.
Point 3 - I had no spoilers or prior knowledge to events listed.
Many of these moments would be ruined by knowing before-hand they were going to happen. So in saying that, I am warning you that the next few weeks of posts will be filled with spoilers about games I played and stuck out in my memory. Your prior knowledge of these events (if you have not yet experienced them) may tarnish the experience for you if you hope to play these games in the near future. The choice is yours, but know that when I played these games I had no idea what was going to happen next and so my opinions were heavily influenced as a result.
Now that I've set down the foundation for these opinions, I present my TOP Ten Most Memorable.
The problem with prequels coming out 10 years after the original story is that you most likely know how they are going to end. I knew Crisis Core would end with Zack Fair's final moments, but how they were going to weave this into the gameplay took me by absolute surprise. The last battle in the game manages to use the game's mechanics to convey a tremendous amount of emotion into a really excellent fighting sequence.
“Metal Gear Solid” is
a franchise that is made up of plot-twist after compounding plot-twist, but
Psycho Mantis was most memorable for using the Playstation itself to mentally unnerve
you and thwart your efforts to defeat him. His displays of psychic prowess
break the proverbial fourth wall and confront the player directly and the
challenge of defeating him required some out-of-the-box thinking and gaming.
Chrono Trigger
opens with a trip to the Millennial Fair which is celebrating the year 1000AD
as well as the Hero’s triumphant defeat of Magus 400 years ago. As soon as you
walk Crono out the front door the game is already conditioning you for the ultimate
showdown with Magus in 600AD and you don’t even know it. The game does a good
job of hyping up this fight and then it delivers in one of the best sequences
in the game topped off with one of the best tracks of battle music as well.
Sora proves without a
doubt he would do anything to reunite with his friends. After learning that his
friend Kairi will remain comatose until her heart is freed from its hiding
place locked within Sora’s own heart, he does what any selfless hero-in-training
would do – stabs himself in the heart with a Keyblade that unlocks all hearts.
He frees Kairi and allows darkness to consume his heart.
Shadow of the Colossus
is a masterpiece and every moment is memorable, but it’s easy to pick out the
first of the sixteen colossi as the poster-colossus to represent the whole
game. Though each of the colossi is a marvel in its own right, Valus sets the
tone and scope of the entire adventure by taking your breath away as you grip
your sword and run up to his enormous legs trying to find some weakness to
bring this giant down.
Final Fantasy IV
is my favorite game to play. I’ve beaten it dozens of times because I love the
story and characters. I want to note that my least favorite characters are
Palom & Porom, but for one short scene they really steal the show. Their
self-sacrifice has me tearing up every single time I live through it. Despite the
twins spending most of their time annoying me with their sibling banter, they
really show a courage and wisdom beyond their years when they step up and give
their lives to free the other characters from a devious trap.
#4 - The Master Sword (The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time, Nintendo 64, 1998)
The pivotal moment
in Ocarina of Time is after you gather
the three prerequisite pendants and play the Song of Time before the sword in
the stone. Link pulls the Master Sword free in an unforgettable sequence.
When you step into the shoes of Link as an adult several years into the future, you realize you’ve only scratched the
surface of what this game has in store for you.
In an elaborate attempt to gain access to the world’s only
privately owned and operated airship, the cast of Final Fantasy VI opt to cast Celes as the lead
role in place of the opera starlet Maria, whom the airship owner is planning to kidnap. I expected to step on stage and see a few lines
of text before the scene changed, but what I got was a full
20 minute opera completely composed in 16-bit. It shattered my
perception of video game music, and remains one of the most amazing scenes in
the entire “Final Fantasy” franchise.
#2 - Aerith's Death (Final Fantasy VII, Playstation, 1997)
The villain you’ve been chasing manages to get his hands
on the Black Materia and use it cast a world ending spell known as “Meteor.” In
response, the soft-spoken, kind-hearted token damsel in distress decides to
head off on her own to seek answers and when you finally catch up to her, you
find her peacefully praying on a dais in the middle of the Forgotten City. She looks up at you with hope in her eyes,
and that’s when the villain descends from above and impales her on the end of his
sword. Does this sound upsetting? Believe me, it is. This scene is burned into
my memory.
#1 - Samus Unmasked (Metroid, Nintendo Entertainment System, 1987)
I believe Aerith’s Death (#2) may be slightly more
emotionally traumatizing and shocking, but Samus pulling off her helmet and
revealing she is a woman is my #1 because I was so young when I
experienced it and it was equally unexpected. I was so proud of myself for
beating such a difficult game, and the game itself rewarded me with knowledge
that not many kids had at the time. This moment of revelation is really what kick
started her as a video game phenomenon.
Radiant Historia is
a great game. It’s possibly one of the best traditional RPG I have played in a
long time. It’s got turn based battles and a very complex story that even I
have trouble keeping straight in a single play-through. I recently decided I’d
be joining the masses of expectant players logging into Diablo III next week, so I’m trying to get all my current projects
finished before then. It feels unlikely that I’ll finish Radiant Historia and Xenoblade Chronicles since I’m so wrapped up in my obsession to build in Terraria. 
