Final Fantasy X - To Luca!

So yesterday I got Final Fantasy X HD Remaster. I think it's gorgeous. The facial animations are a bit weird sometimes though, less emotion really. I can get past it since I love it so much and everything else is beautifully smoothed out and has added detail. If you don't see it, pop in the PS2 version and you will, or find a video of the orginal PS2 if you don't have it; you'll really see the difference.

Since I don't have a PS3, however, I get to play it at my boyfriend's house when I'm over. This is sadly only about 2 days out of the week normally because of his current school schedule and the fact that my parents would go insane if I said, "Hey, I'm staying the night at Kevin's, see you tomorrow!" Since I have to live with my parents for now, it's best to try and keep them happy. He's ever so loving and sweet though and lets me play it, for the most part, as much as I want. It's a bonus that he's never played it before and doesn't really know anything about it, so there are some things he finds interesting and sometimes he just gets sassy in a kind of funny way about stuff, like Wakka's strange shoulder guard thing.

But my time is still limited to playing for short period of time while I'm there because it feels wrong to go over there an play for 6 hours and not really be all cuddly and loving like I love to be. With this concept of balancing my time with my favorite game and my time with my boyfriend in mind... I don't really know how. I'll be trying my best at it though with breaks during the play time to talk with him and be cute to playing and talking with him a bit less.

Now, I've also been trying to play while getting as much done in a short period of time as possible, which I'll probably slow down on a bit once I get past Luca. My goal yesterday was to stop when I got to Luca, but I got a bit further than that. I'm right before playing in the Blitzball touney with Tidus and I suck at it. Like serious, if you have any tips for how to win or become decent at blitzball I'd be grateful if you left them in the comments. I'm awful at it and the rules are so boring to read.

It was a good day playing yesterday though! Trying to explain the Sphere Grid is difficult though because I skipped the tutorial because I know how to use it, but explaining it to my boyfriend who kept asking questions was difficult. I didn't think it was that complicated, but maybe it's more difficult to understand than I thought? Maybe I'm just bad at explaining it, I'll probably try again next time I'm there.

Anywho, I forgot to get Valefor's second overdrive while I was in Besaid and was a little down about it until I read that I can go back and talk to someone twice, I think, and get it. I also missed an Al Bhed Primer and worried over it for several minutes while I tried to figure out if it was one I could go back and get later (it was). I know there are some you can only get while you're there, but I think all of those might just be the ones at Home. I need to double check.

Playing Final Fantasy with someone around who has never played one is very interesting. Especially if they're someone who asks questions that can be difficult to answer if they're interested in the story and you don't want to completely ruin it for them. My boyfriend keeps asking about the ending and how "defeating"
Sin works if Sin just keeps coming back and there's just so little you can really say before you start spoiling it, but you don't get to most of that until pretty close to the end anyway. I keep telling him he'll just have to wait. He didn't pay attention to the part where they showed Seymour, so he doesn't realize just how important he is yet. It's funny how he misses little things because he's doing his own stuff in between cutscenes and significant moments in the game.

This is a fun experience for me because I'm very uncomfortable having people watch me play games unless it has happened a lot. My brother has been around and watched me for years, but I've always known he's better but he never judged me when I didn't do as well as him at something. He accepts that I'm really good at some things and really bad at others (platforming). I don't expect this of other people and while I know Kevin wouldn't make fun of me or anything if I wasn't good at something, it's easier if he watches me do something I know for a fact and confidently that I'm very good at, like Final Fantasy X. So, hopefully this will make him watching me play other games easier in the future or playing certain games with him.

I know this post is full of personal accounts with the boyfriend and me, but it was a very nice fun time and I wanted to share! I'll try to keep most of my posts more focused on the content in the game in the future, so please excuse that!

Announcement Time!
I'm making an Al Bhed Primer guide! This is mostly for me to have quick and easy access to. Most guides (I'm looking at gamefaqs) I've found don't do a very good job about telling the location of the primers but squiddo does. I'm borrowing their pictures for the locations and writing up my own descriptions (mostly) to help better understand where they are, and I'll be posting it as a page on this blog! Feel free to use it if you want, most people probably won't need it by the time I'm done with it (which will hopefully be later today) because there are so many others out there. I may consider putting it on game faqs as well since it'll be a little more indepth than the current one that's listed.

I'll also be continuing to blog about my various experinces as I play Final Fantasy X, so there will likely be lots of posts like these to come.

Final Fantasy X Yuna Quote

This is possibly my favorite quote from the game. I'm not sure though. There's something about it and the quick flash of images of all the characters and knowing she's referring to Tidus with the "dreams that have faded" part.

Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep: Ventus

Let me preface this by stating I never did one of these for Aqua, sadly because it was difficult. I tried but it felt to serious and I wanted it to feel similar to the fun filled feeling I had with Terra and Ven which just didn't happen.

Okay, so after beating Terra’s story I did Ventus’. Mostly because the order Nomura said was Terra, Ventus, then Aqua. 

Anywho, the happier feel of Ventus’ story is nice after beating Terra’s, and not because I don’t like darker more serious stuff, but I mean… Terra had some serious stuff goin’ down with his darkness. So, it was just a nice change a pace. Then it got to that scene flashback land where Terra made Ven cry and I wanted to be like

because I grew attached to Ven and his more carefreeness. Terra did make it better in the scene though because he said something then Ven was all like

Although, I don’t quite understand why Terra and Aqua act more like they’re his parents than brother and sister figures. 

Then after everyone is all like, “Ven, you just need to go home!” Ven pretty much is like

and then after that, in all the worlds you go to Ven is like 

with the people he meets in other worlds. 

Then when I got to Deep Space and Stitch came out of nowhere and Ven talks to him, Stitch pulls out a Wayfinder (the star shaped things Aqua made) that he made himself and looks at Ven and says all their names and “Fren” (exactly like that) I’m like

because of the cuteness in his little animated face as he says it.

Then, later, that annoying big guard guy (I have forgotten his name, it has been years seen I last saw Lilo and Stitch, sadly) walks up to spouting off his nonsense about how Stitch is nothing but a destruction machine and shoots his wayfinder I was like

but then I was like

to the guard guy because that was messed up. He probably worked hard on that thing because he wanted Terra, Aqua, and Ven to be his friend.

Then I finally got to the end of Ven’s story but before that I spent a good while leveling him and getting more abilities. It turns out that when I fought Xehanort with Terra I was level 28 and had lots of issues. As Ven I did it at level 34 and didn’t have any issues at all. I also had more Thunder Surges with Ven too. Regardless of that though, when I finished I still felt like

Then for his little “You finished his story!” cut scene I felt like I was left with more questions than answers.  

I’m off to start Aqua’s story. 

Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep: Terra's Story

Let me preface this by saying I made this at least two years ago and posted it on tumblr (atimeatanevent.tumblr.com) with no shame, so I'm doing the same here. I don't think this really counts as a review, but it's still fun and I thought I'd share. Ven is up next!

Alrighty, so lately, I’ve been playing KHBBS. I love Kingdom Hearts. There a just a few things that made me want to bash my head in though. 

In Radiant Garden, after you fight that thing with Ventus and Aqua, Aqua’s telling Terra that she’s seen the things he’s done in other worlds like he’s done some true and real harm and I’m just like,

because Terra never did anything wrong on purpose. He didn’t know that certain people (i.e. Maleficent) was evil. He knew that queen lady that told him to take Snow White’s heart was evil, and guess what Aqua, he didn’t take her heart. Then Terra gets annoyed because of Aqua’s accusations and yells at poor Ven.  

Then when I got to the Olympus Coliesum I thought I was never going to get past it and then when I finally did I was like

because I got to form a D-link with Zack and for some reason that made me really happy.

Then when I got to Deep Space my first thought was, “Why are we in Halo?” and was like

Then I was like

when realized what a retarded moment I had that it was Lilo and Stitch.

Then when I got to the Keyblade graveyard I fought me some tornadoes. Then went to clash against Xehanort. And when Xehanort took over Terra’s body and his hair turned white it was like

because I never made the connection that Terra looked like the Xehanort I knew from other Kingdom Hearts games.

Then when you had to fight him, if you could have seen me, there was much of this

because I thought I’d never kill the man. Then when I realize it was mostly a battle of patience and timing when you attack it got easier except his hits hurt… a lot.

Oh, and let’s not forget that every time Vanitas talks I’m like

because I love Haley Joel Osment’s voice (and Sora) but it was sad that Vanitas barely makes an appearance in Terra’s story.