<–The State of the Gamer: 10/11/16          The State of the Gamer: 10/25/16–>

A weekly post updated every Tuesday detailing my current gaming projects.  I have quite a backlog of games to either play or watch, and I’m hoping a weekly article will assist with my progress as my other accountable posts have done with reading and writing.

I have an account at Grouvee, which is a essentially Goodreads for gamers, so please feel free to friend me there!

Original source of the banner art is located here.

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Games Finished This Week

Title: Final Fantasy IV
Series: Final Fantasy
Genre: RPG – Fantasy
Developer: Square
Original Platform: SNES
Original Release Date: July 19, 1991
Date Started: Unknown
Date Finished: 10/15/16

It’s with some pride I announce that I managed to finally beat Zeromus after the fourth attempt, and I even took a picture of him going down.

The strategy I came up with the prior week worked; I just ad to stick with it to the letter.  Here were my levels at completion:

Rydia – 65
Cecil – 69
Kain – 73
Edge – 63
Rosa – 63

They’re the same levels I was on last week; only my strategy changed.

I used Rydia and Rosa as healers, casting Asura and Cure 4 respectively every round.  Asura heals, casts Shell (I think), and also Life.  This seems to be fairly random, but the Life spell came in handy quite often.  Edge was on standby with elixirs just in case, but I only had to do that twice.  Once after reviving Rydia and again to refill Rosa’s MP.  Kain jumped with the Holy Lance and Cecil attacked with the Ragnarok Sword, and Edge threw projectiles when not relegated to handing out elixirs.  That Kitchen Knife is no joke.  You receive it from Yang’s wife (she really should have a name) after completing the quest to revive her husband, and it takes of 9999 HP.  I always save it for the final battle for this very reason.  After that I had Edge throw Mythril Swords Fumas, which chip off around 4-5k HP.

I think I could’ve beaten him at lower levels had I stuck with this plan.  Having only one healer during this arduous battle is just not enough.

So now that I’m finished this Final Fantasy, I have to write my review/analysis of it.  I have tons of notes, and I plan to start by this weekend.  I have a lot to say about this game, its story, music, and dynamics.  It is by far the most challenging Final Fantasy I’ve ever finished (keeping in mind I didn’t finish the first three FFs myself).  I’m hoping to bang out the review/analysis in one weekend, but since they’re very involved and detailed, it could be a much longer project.

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Game Currently Playing

N/A

Now that I’ve completed Final Fantasy IV, I’m currently in between games.  One of my rules for this project is I can’t start the next Final Fantasy until the prior one has been reviewed.  Since I don’t want to play anything involved and elaborate in this in between time, I’m stuck with nothing to play at all.  I’m a bit behind in my systems owning or having complete access to only older ones e.g. PlayStaton 2, Nintendo DS/Game Boy Advance, PSP, possibly a PS3.  Although…I do have access to a PC with tons of emulators on it.  I’d prefer to play something more modern like ABZU, Journey, or Bound, but alas, this is not going to be possible.  I may pick up a copy of Klonoa 2: Lunatea’s Veil, a 2 1/2D platformer that I thoroughly enjoyed playing, or I may just use some of the time I spent on FFIV playing DDR.  It is a video game, so it totally counts.

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Games Currently Watching

Title: Mass Effect
Series: Mass Effect
Genre: Action RPG – Sci-Fi
Developer: BioWare
Original Platform(s): Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3
Original Release Date: November 16, 2007
Let’s Player: Olizandri
Date Started: September 29, 2016

The intrigue and interest in this game keep growing and growing the more I watch.  I am quite proud of myself for figuring out the Matriarch Benezia was voiced by Marina Sirtis of Star Trek: TNG fame.  Her voice is very distinctive, even though she was apparently putting on an affect during her time on the show.  She’s British-American, has an English accent, but wanted her inflection to sound indistinctly foreign and so manufactured that particular accent for the show.  Either way, it’s quite easy to pick her voice out, and the Google confirmed it.

I think my current favorite character is Wrex.  He’s direct, blunt, and a bad ass who can (wait for it) wreck shit up (I’m so sorry…).  Olizandri, the Let’s Player, tends to stick exclusively with Wrex and Garrus though he did use Liara during the last plot mission since it involved her fore mentioned mother Benezia.  This may have an affect on my choice of favorite, but I don’t think by much.

I’m actually shocked he’s not more pissed off at Garrus, since it was the Turians who unleashed the genophage the Salarians developed, but like most of his species, Wrex has a sort of fatalistic outlook, though he seems more concerned with finding a solution than most.  Krogans look like a humanoid cross between (Earth) alligators/crocodiles and toads, and I find all of the alien species on Mass Effect to be fascinating.  It’s hard to miss how mundane fauna inspired some of their designs.

If you’ve played/watched Mass Effect, who’s your favorite character?

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Games Added to Play List: 4

Note: Last week I went all out in my add lists, but I have too many and I’m too tired to be as elaborate as I was.  You’ll have to forgive me for that.

1. Grim Fandango – I can thank the Well-Red Mage for introducing me to this one per this lovely review.
2. World of Final Fantasy – I like to call this “Final Fantasy Cute” per how I first heard it described during a video about E3 (incidentally, it was talked about on the same video that did a reaction to the FFVII Remake announcement).
3. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – one of my blogger friends just reviewed one of these or was talking about it *hits self*  I’ll make sure to save the link to the review next time.  Sorry!
4. Final Fantasy: Brave Exvius – a long time friend randomly texted me about this to ask if I was playing.  I’m not currently.  It appears to be available on the iPhone so it’s a possibility.

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Games Added to Watch List: 2

1. Paper Mario: Color Splash – I know one of you posted about this.  That’s how I got the idea to add it, because I didn’t even know there was a Paper Mario: Color Spash.
2. Ico – connected with Shadow of the Colossus, which I’ve only heard good things about.

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What are you currently playing and/or watching? Is it something new or old?  Is it a first time run or a replay?  What’s the genre?  Would you recommend it?  What’s on your radar to play next?

<–The State of the Gamer: 10/11/16          The State of the Gamer: 10/25/16–>

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