R³ Gaming - Final Fantasy XIII-2

'Sup readers,

Final Fantasy, a name that is well known to every gamers around the world. Popular for it's awesome story line where usually revolves around saving the world, this franchise is what I would consider as a Legendary RPGs. From the minds of Hironobu Sakaguchi, today it has more than a dozen games under the name Final Fantasy alone. But, I'm not gonna be rambling about those games, no, this is considered a pretty old game, but I would still like to review it anyways. No harm in that, right? So, without further ado, I present to you, my review of Final Fantasy XIII-2

-START HERE-

The starting of the game is kinda nice, enters Lightning the protagonist from Final Fantasy XIII. Shown wearing a valkyrian like armor, with her gunblade. Then, after a short opening scene, players are served with an awesome battle tutorial where the players are using Lightning. For those who played the first installment, there's nothing "wow-ing" really. They retain the battle style system from FFXIII. It's 3 years after the incidence of Final Fantasy 13. For some reason Lightning is gone and Snow is looking for her. Players controls Serah Farron - Lightning's sister alongside Noel Kreiss - A boy from the past who Lightning asked to bring Serah to her. And so after this and that, that and this, moogling moogling, He and Serah travel through time to fix the past and the future.

- GAMEPLAY -

One major difference between it's previous installment is this part, the gameplay. In Final Fantasy XIII, players can only go straight along the path, no inter-junctions  no nothing. Except on one episode that took place in Gran Pulse. Many fans complained about this and well, Square Enix has heard the plea and improved that. In XIII-2 the map is damn big, you can actually get lost if you don't view the map every now and then. They maintain the battle style with a little bit of changes.

This time around YOU CAN ONLY USE SERAH AND NOEL.

Booyah!! It sucks yes, but ya see, to make up for it, you can actually command monsters to fight along your side.

Each monster has their own role - Commando, Ravager, Sentinal, Medic, Saboteur, and Synergist. To get them you must battle with them and there's a percentage monster crystals will appear as spoils. Similar to XIII, XIII-2 also uses the crystarium system but unlike XIII, XIII-2's are jumbled up. meaning in one crystarium u can add  for example both medic role and a sentinel. It's good in a sense of uniqueness but IMO they should have maintained XIII's crystarium system. This only applies to Serah and Noel. Summon monsters have their own specific roles, and to increase the role you must have the correct monster materials as exp to level up these pets of yours.  Equipments, items and weapons can be bought from the travelling (and annoying) Chocolina.

Chocolina - Annoyin lil' cuh-nnnh!!

Although you need certain items for it to be available for buying. But I guess XIII-2's, has it's fair share of fun. Journeying in XIII-2 is totally not the same as XIII. One being it's not just a "straight-line" walk play, the other is that, how shall I put it, like Kingdom Hearts meets Chrono Cross. You will find yourself feeling a bit of dejavu playing the same place, but only with somewhat different scenery due to the different timeline. Plus, the side quests and puzzles are pretty fun I supposed. Although, they could've done a better job, but at least it's better than Final Fantasy XIII.

- GRAPHICS AND SOUNDTRACKS-

Sad to say that graphics of this game has been toned down compared to the first Final Fantasy XIII. But thankfully by just a little. But, imo, they did do a hella great job nonetheless.As for the soundtracks, it is, in my opinion, insanely awesome. I have nothing much to say bout it. Here's a YT link just to give a feel of how the OST is like,Final Fantasy XIII-2 OST credits to AdrianaYuna for uploading this on YT.



- STORY LINE -

So we continue 3 years after the event of FFXIII. This time around you'll be goin through time fixing anomalies to restore the correct time line and hope that it'll bring you to Lightning. Add in a few twists and turn. and FUCKIN DLCSSSS!!!! I'm not gonna buy the DLCs so I'm yet to know what they in stored for us. But ya can check youtube though.

- VERDICT -

Overall it's a fun game, great if you're having that Final Fantasy cravings but don't wanna play the previous ones although they are damn fuckin good or just want something new. As for those who are asking the question whether if it is worth it to buy this game, this is my answer. If ya can get it cheap. So my ratings for this game'll be.. 3.5/10.

Yeah, gameplay's kinda good with a fair story line.

Until next time, Lebot signing out.

** Sorry for the late publish, got lotsa things goin these past couple of weeks.

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R³ Gaming - NI NO KUNI: Wrath of the White Witch. -MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS-

'Sup guys,

Welcome readers to the first ever part of the blog's R³ section. This time we'll be looking at one of the most epic JRPG of recent times. Ni NO KUNI: Wrath of the White Witch. Available on PS3 and Nintendo DS.


-START HERE-

We began our story in a sort-of-rural area called the Motorville. Our main protagonist, Oliver, 13 year old boy was a young engineer of sort. While trying out a new vehicle that was designed by his best friend Philip, he was involved in an accident and was almost drowned until he was saved by his mother- Allie. Soon after the incidence, his mother died. He then embarks on a journey to the other world along side Mr.Drippy, Lord High Lord of the Fairies to save his mother and defeat the Dark Djinn,

-GAMEPLAY-

This gameplay style is quite new to me. It's a hybrid system gameplay whereby the players are able to control the characters' but the actions are some what active time based. Secondly, to better explain this game, think Poke'mon. Yes, I said it right. Poke'mon. Now why did I say that. Well, unlike normal jRPG where you as the Hero fight your own battles, this game revolves around uses of monster fighting each other. The one's you have are called farmiliars. Once you nurture your farmiliars to a certain level, you are able to evolve them. (See, what'd I told ya, Poke'mon). In addition to that, you can also "capture" wild farmiliars and make them your own. Now, as all jRPGs have in common is always the grinding system. This is not an exceptional to NI NO KUNI. But what's different is that NI NO KUNI is able to actually make your grinding a lot of fun. I actually spent more on grinding missions and levels more than actually play the storyline. The sidequests are called errands whereby you help people with their problems and stuff. By doing so you get stamps and filled up your errand cards, you can exchange for bonus stuff to enhance and also ease your journey. Sure one can play for about 3 days to just finish the story line but, there's more than meets the eye is all I'm saying. One other thing that differs, NI NO KUNI from other games is that the involvements of players skills to read and decipher some encrypted messages. These can be done by reading your in-game book - The Wizard's Companion.

-GRAPHICS AND SOUNDTRACKS-

1 word. STUNNING!! They really able to make this game come alive. The texture, color, designs are just awesome. It's expected of it as this game was the product of collaboration between Level-5 and Studio Ghibli - Both are well known for their beautifully designed games. 2D anime-ish cut scenes are being presented in a "not annoying" manner, well, makes this game even more presentable. While playing this game, players are also being served with mind-blowing background soundtrack all performed by Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra. Usually, I don't like these background musics, mainly cause some of them are too disturbing. But not for NI NO KUNI. I actually at some point, I forgot which place, the soundtrack is so calm and soothing I put down the controller just to enjoy it. In addition to that, due to this awesome soundtrack, it's becoming one of the factor, in my opinion, that players can enjoy grinding and not feel bored at all.

-STORY LINE-

I won't go too in-depth as to not spoil too much of the game. To put it simple, a boy lost his mom, met a fairy who told him 'bout magic, went to alternate world to destroy evil. Add in a few twist and turn. To me, this game has a decent story line. It's not like, mind F*CKIN WTF ARGHHHH!! kind of game despite there's being some unexpected twist 1 or 2 times. At some point players can kinda guess the how the story's going to progress as it being a bit too childishly mainstream. Some what give you the impression of this is a "kid's game". Despite that being said, anyone who enjoys RPGs will get their money worth out of this game.

-VERDICT-

Overall, I would totally recommend this game to those who enjoys jRPG as much as I do. My personal ratings for this game will be a 8.5/10.

Seriously this game is very very good.

Until next time,

Lebot, signing off.

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First post, gist and legends.

So this is the first post of on this new blog. So I'll be goin to tell ya what's in store for y'all.

First of all, this blog is mainly to rant on my p.o.v on movies, games, novels and etc. I may touch on a few things personal but I do try to avoid it if I could.

So look forward to it cause it's gonna be Legend-wait for it-dairy!! LEGENDARY!!!

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