Final Fantasy 10 and 10-2

Final Fantasy is an exciting, ongoing series by Square Enix. All of the games are different but have certain aspects that tie them together. This review will cover the tenth game and it's sequel 10-2 for the PS2.

Final Fantasy 10 has you playing as a young man name Tidus, who is a star player on his team in a game called Blitzball. When his home, Zanarkand, is attacked by a monster called Sin, Tidus is thrown a thousand years into the future. It's here that he meets his friends; Wakka, the captain of his blitzball team the Besaid Aurochs, Yuna, a summoner in training to become strong enough to defeat sin, and Yuna's guardians, Lulu, and Kimahri, among a few others. Tidus decides to travel with Yuna and the others in an attempt to figure out what's going on in his life and how he could get back to Zanarkand, which is now destroyed. Tidus and the others run into trouble when they meet a guado named Seymore who tries (and almost succeeds) in forcing Yuna to marry him. A hint of romance between Yuna and Tidus make everything much more difficult for everyone, and eventually Tidus is asked to become one of Yuna's official guardians. Eventually, Tidus decides that the only way he can possibly hope to get back to where he belongs is to once again confront Sin. After doing so, Yuna defeats Sin making both him and Tidus disappear without a trace.

Final Fantasy 10-2 takes place a few years after 10 ends. This time, you play as Yuna who has now become whats called a sphere hunter. After finding a sphere that contains who she thinks is Tidus, she becomes a part of a sphere hunter team called the Gullwings, hoping to find more clues as to where Tidus could be. Yuna, and her new team involving Rikku and a mysterious woman named Paine, travel the world looking for these spheres that explain the history of Spira. Soon, Yuna discovers a huge weapon that has the potential to destroy Spira called Vegnagun. When they decide to try to do something about it, it disappears, as do the leaders of the main groups in Spira; Nooj of the Youth League, Baralai of New Yevon, and Gippal of the Al Bhed. Not only are they missing, but now Spira is split in two and each side is fighting the other. Among the chaos and disorder, Yuna has to find a way to bring everyone together and finally solve the mysteries that she's been confronted with.

Okay, so Final Fantasy is one of my favorite series in RPG gaming. As of right now (that I know of) there are 14 games in the main series, and more are always in the works. On top of that, there are the few that have sequels such as 10 and 13. Also, there are countless other spin off games such as Dirge of Cerberus,
which spins from 7, or Crystal Chronicles for the Gamecube. Also, the games in this series are continuously being re-released. 10 and 10-2 for example, are planned to be re-released for the PS3 in the near future.

Anyway, Final Fantasy 10 is a pretty straight forward RPG. Pretty much all you do is run around the world with your team, beat on some enemies, rinse, and repeat, until you get to the end. It sounds boring, but if you've ever played an RPG game, they're all basically the same, which isn't bad. In this game the battle system is your typical Final Fantasy sequential battle system. Pretty much, you wait your turn, choose an attack or an item or from another option you may have, hit the enemy, and repeat. Now, if timed correctly, this can be chained, which can be pretty epic, especially in 10-2 with the Gunner dress sphere. Another thing that makes these game fun are that the maps are huge. There are so many different places to go, it's ridiculous. In 10-2, you're living on an airship, where you can go to and then teleport to any place on the map, which makes things much more easy and convenient. But, if you want, you can still walk from place to place if you so desire. I know of a few people, my boyfriend included, who hates the fact that you always end up back at the airship in 10-2, but I don't mind it for I think it makes things easier, but that may be just me.

There isn't much of a difference graphics wise going from 10 to 10-2. There also isn't too much difference when it comes to gameplay. However, the leveling systems are very different between the games. You also have this nifty dress sphere system in 10-2 which can be complicated to those who aren't used to it. Again, this is a feature I like, but I can see it frustrating others since some are VERY difficult to get a hold of. These leveling systems and dress spheres are a little complicated to explain, so you're probably better off to Google it if you want to know the details. But overall, even if you play and you're not a fan of 10 or 10-2, this series is a must play for anyone, not just RPG lovers. Try them all, pick your favorites, eventually I'm sure more of them will make it onto this blog. Have a nice day. :)

Naruto

Ah yes, the bright orange, hyper active, knuckle-headed ninja of the Hidden Leaf village...Naruto Uzumaki. This show was created by Masashi Kishimoto and is featured in the Shonen Jump magazine.

Naruto is about a young ninja named, what else, Naruto, who is basically the worst ninja in his village. Naruto gets put into a squad with his teammates, the depressed, revenge ridden boy Sasuke Uchiha and flirtatious, super-genius Sakura Haruno. They're squad leader is a mysterious, care-free man named Kakashi Hatake, who always keeps his face covered. Naruto has to prove himself to both his squad and the entire village that he is a worthy shinobi and he's capable of become the Hokage of his village, the top ninja who watches over everything.

I personally love this show. I think it's well written and has plenty of violence and action with many humorous moments brought to use by Naruto himself. Not only is the show itself great, but the comic is also very entertaining and doesn't leave out that censorship we see in the widly televised anime. On the downside, this show is very based along Naruto having to find his lost friend Sasuke, which in turn leads to many, MANY filler episodes. Sure, some of them are pretty good but many of them are just...how to say it...Stupid and meaningless. Back to the positive things, another thing I really like about this show is the fact that everyone has a story behind them. It's very obvious that the writers took a lot of time and effort into creating a background story for even the smallest characters. I also love how all the characters are so different, both personality and appearance wise. Even people like the ramen shop owners or the nurses in the hospitals all have different, distinct personalities which prevents the show, in most cases, from being boring and always keeps you guessing. It's very obvious that everyone who helps create this show takes their job seriously and works hard to give it's viewers the best action/ninja show around, Naruto.

One distinct thing that puts Naruto apart from many other animes is the essential 'second half'. When the series ends there is a three year time jump when the three main characters, Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura, each train under one of three powerful ninjas known as sanin. Naruto trains under Jiraiya, Sasuke under Orochimaru, and Sakura under Tsunade. Now, you never see what actually happens during these three years, but the show picks up in a new series, Naruto Shippuden. In the first episode of this new series, Naruto is just returning to the leaf village. Everyone is older and stronger, and Naruto re-joins Sakura and Kakashi to make a new team. Naruto is now on a mission to bring back Sasuke, who has abandon the village to get revenge for his family and get the strength he needs to kill his brother. This show takes a new spin onto the show and essentially makes it more interesting since everyone is older, wiser, and significantly stronger. However, this show is ENDLESS. I swear, there has to be a couple hundred episodes in the original series and then a couple hundred more in the Shippuden...and it's still coming out with new episodes every week like clockwork. But it's an excellent show and deserves to be appreciated or watched entirely if you have a good year and a half and sit and watch all of the episodes....

This first video depicts the original Naruto series. The second one depicts the Shipudden episodes. 

Princess Mononoke

By Hayao Miyazaki,  Princess Mononoke is the super crazy movie full of spirits, forest gods, and a girl raised by wolves, where can you go wrong?

Okay, so Princess Mononoke starts out when a boy named Ashitaka has to protect his village from a dangerous demon. The demon touches him and leaves a mark on his right arm. The Wise Woman of the village tells him that soon, the mark will kill him all the while causing him great pain and suffering. She also tells him that he has to leave the village and "see the world with eyes unclouded by evil". Also, once he leaves, he can never come back and will be dead to the village forever (this woman is very positive). He leaves to look for the great forest spirit who is supposed to have the ability to heal his arm. During his travels, he comes across a town that creates iron, called Iron Town. The leader of the town is a woman who is destroying the forest simply to get more iron. Ashitaka stays in this town where he meets "the wolf girl" AKA, Princess Mononoke. At first, she hates him, since she hates all humans for what they did to her forest. But soon, she learns to like him and helps him find the the forest spirit and beg him to heal his arm before he dies.

Okay, this movie is great, I love it, one of my favorites. It has a great story line, is exciting, funny, romantic, full of action, and bloody all at the same time. You can't get better than that...I think. The only things that I would say badly about this movie are the blood and the mouth movements for the animals. There is A LOT of blood in this movie. I mean, Ashitaka is an amazing shot with a bow and arrow and decapitates people with a single arrow. He also cuts arms off and gets shot and stuff, so yeah, lots of blood (for a movie rated PG). Secondly, the gods (wolf and boar, there are a few more, but those are the most important) talk. Because they talk, obviously their mouths have to move. But it's sort of poorly done in this movie. Their mouths move like open and shut once or twice for every sentence they say, it's weird. But something you can get used to so it's not so bad. Other than those two things I have no more negative things to say. It's a great movie and one of Hayao Miyazaki's best films, I think. I suggest watching it.

Ghost Hunt

Ghost Hunt, the super creepy horror anime created by Fuyumi Ono. Nothing more to say, nothing less.

Ghost Hunt is a show that follows a 17 year old boy named Shibuya Kazuya, who owns and runs his own paranormal research facility. His co-worker is a quiet, mysterious guy named Lin. One day, while out doing research in an abandon school, a curious orphan named Mai enters the building where Shibuya and Lin are working. When Mai gets into danger, Lin has to move her out the way, and injures himself in the process. As payback, Shibuya makes Mai work for him while Lin recovers. Mai gives Shibuya the nickname Naru, because of how narcissistic he is. Soon, Naru begins to admire Mai's work and the fact that she has her own gift to have dreams that help with investigations. So Naru decides to hire her full time, even when Lin returns. Soon, they are joined by a monk, Bou, an exorcist, John, a medium, Masako, and a priestess, Ayako. Together, they travel around Japan and solve cases, that most of the time get weird, or dangerous...or both.

Ghost Hunt is, I think, the only anime I've ever seen that was actually scary. This show, in some episodes, is just really creepy, almost to the point of me not watching that specific episode. But, I love it because you don't generally see that in an anime or any cartoon for that matter. Of course, their are always downsides. One thing is you have to either speak Japanese fluently, or be able to read fast to watch it. This is because it has yet to come out in English and probably never will, so you have to read the subtitles...which I think isn't all that bad, but that's just me. I guess you can find it in English somewhere over the internet...but I haven't found it, just a few episodes. Also, this show has no real story line. It's just a week or so with them doing an investigation, then it skips to a few weeks or months later where they go on another one. I personally don't mind this because I think it keeps the show from becoming boring, but other people may not like it so much. Other than those two things I really love this show. It's exciting and spooky and just really fun. Plus, you get to learn all these cool, ghost hunting terms...it's great. So, overall I really love this show, it's one of my favorites and I highly suggest you watch it.

Vampire Knight

Vampire Knight is an anime directed by Kiyoko Sayama about, you guessed it, vampires. The shows starts out in a private high school called Cross Academy that has students in two separate 'classes'; the night class, and the day class. If it's not completely obvious, the night class students are all vampire, while the day class students are human. The real twist is that the night class students are simply considered extremely gorgeous, popular, and perfect, the humans have no idea that they're actually vampires, and headmaster Kaien Cross aims to keep it that way. He adopted both a young girl named Yuki, and a boy, Zero, after his parents were killed by vampires. It's Yuki and Zero's job to ensure that no humans are wandering around at night trying to get a peek at their favorite night class student just to accidentally discover a vampire. They also have to keep certain night class students from feeding from those few, curious students. When Yuki's crush and head of the night class Kaname Kuran starts to get a few unwelcome plans for Yuki, Zero comes in with a few words of his own...

Alrighty then, so I like vampires, I like anime, why not combine the two right? There are a lot of mixed feelings when it comes to this show because the ending isn't really what you would suspect or want (not giving anything away). I know I'm not really a fan of how it ends simply because I like them to go how I want and this one, well, doesn't. But for those who like the unexpected, this is the show for you. It's very good and well rounded when it comes to humor and seriousness and the occasional scene here and there that'll bring tears to your eyes. There is also the controversial 'love triangle' between Yuki, Zero, and Kaname. I'm not going to go to far into that idea, but it's definitely there. The show does tend to jump around a little bit and not all the characters really have a back story, even the ones that you really want to know more about, such as the majority of the night class. Really, there are only a handful of characters that you really get to know. But, like I so often say, it's all up to the viewer. Some people like not knowing much about the smaller characters, whereas some people, like me, want to know as much as people because I tend to like the minor characters the most. But overall the show is good. It's not girly and has some cool fight scenes so ladies can even watch it with their boyfriends.

Fruits Basket

If you like the Chinese zodiac, you'll love this show. From the one and only Natsuki Takaya,Fruits Basket is definitely one of a kind.

Before I start talking about this show, I think I should tell you all the story of the zodiac. As you probably know, the Chinese zodiac consists of animals; rat, dog, sheep, bull, rooster, horse, monkey, dragon, snake, tiger,

boar, rabbit and the cat. Well, one day, all the animals of the zodiac were invited to a banquet the next day. They were all so excited. But, the rat decided to go to the cat and tell him that the banquet was the day after next. The cat was excited to be invited, and went to sleep dreaming of a banquet he would never attend. The next day came, and the rat rode off to the banquet, riding on the bull, followed by the other animals...except the cat. From that day, the cat and the rat were enemies, and the cat was banned from the zodiac and shunned by everyone for not attending, all because of the rat

This show is about a girl named Tohru Honda who's mother dies and she has to live with her grandfather. The thing is, he decides to get his house re-modeled, and Tohru has to find somewhere to stay. Determined not to burden anyone around her, she starts living in a tent, unaware that she's on the property belonging to the infamous Sohma family. One day, the "prince" of her high school, Yuki Sohma, and the man he lives with, Shigure Sohma find her and invite her to stay at there house for a while. Tohru's tent gets destroyed by a landslide, so Yuki and Shigure offer their home to her, so long as she cleans and cooks for them (typical men). Soon, she meets another Sohma who soon starts living in the same house, Kyou. Instead of going back with her grandfather, Tohru decides to permanently live with the Sohma's. But, there's one huge secret among their family. The Sohma family is cursed by the Chinese zodiac. Certain members of this family will turn into an animal from the zodiac when they're under great stress or hugged by a person of the opposite sex. The head of the Sohma family, Akito, allows Tohru to continue living with these people, though she would soon regret it. She'll soon find out, that the three people she lives with, are also tormented with this curse. Shigure is the dog, and Yuki and Kyou? The rat and the cat of course. Kyou hates being the rejected cat, and hates even more living with the rat that betrayed him. But Tohru tries her hardest to help him and the others. But, will Akito allow it? Of course not.

Now, this show is a very pleasant blend of humor and sadness. For the most part, it's a funny show filled to the brim with over-the-top characters and over-dramatic animation. However, it does have it's fair share of moments where it plunges you into the hearts and souls of characters and how their lives are so negatively impacted by this curse. The humor, of course, is always very quick to return and wipe away

those tears threatening to emerge, but it leaves a lasting impressing and gives you a new view on certain characters and their back stories. That's something I personally find amazing about this show. These characters, from the most important to ones who don't show up very often, all of them have in-depth stories. It's something that many character developers tend to avoid, leaving characters pasts up to the viewers imagination. Fruits Basket doesn't do that and covers even the smallest details, which makes watching the show much more enjoyable. On the negative side however, there are a lot of characters to remember. For some people this isn't a problem, but for others I know it can become quite the task. The anime does cut a few from the manga, such as Rin, the horse, but there are still many more to deal with. But overall it's an excellent story with amazing character development and one of my personal favorites. 

Dragon Age 1 and 2

Dragon Age is a game made by BioWare and currently has two installments (Origins and two), a third one, Inquisition, is due to be released in the Fall of 2014.

Dragon Age Orgins Starts you out playing as a race/origin of your choosing. There are many options from human, dwarf, elf, and then sub-origins from there, such as a dwarf commoner or noble. After that you go through a short introduction sequence, just to get used to the game (all of them are different). After a bit you

meet a man named Duncan who decided to have you travel with him. He makes you into whats called a grey warden and recruits you to fight in a war against an un-dead enemy called the darkspawn, led by a huge dragon. During the war you troops are betrayed, resulting in the death of the king and the destruction of the city. Your job is to travel the world of Ferelden, gathering team members, and seeking revenge for the fallen king on the man who betrayed him, plus a little romance on the side never hurts.

In Dragon Age 2 you start out the game as refugees from that very town that was destroyed during the war in Origins. You need to fight your way out of Ferelden and into a place called Kirkwall. You can only play as a human in this one, but you get to choose between a warrior, mage, or rogue. Once in Kirkwall you find

yourself in poverty and seeking the aide of a dwarf to go onto 'a life changing mission'. You need to fight your way back into the higher ranks of the city and stop the ever boiling war between the mages, the templars, and the very unwelcome 'guests' know as the Qunari.

This is one of my favorite game series for the PS3 of all time. I was debating doing 1 and 2 in different reviews but decided to combine the two. Origins is great fun and dangerously addicting. There are so many different twists, turns and side trips you can take (or avoid), along with the huge amount of downloadable content that's available for purchase. There are so many decisions you have to make and that's something, in my opinion, that sets this game apart from so many others. You can radically change the outcome of the game and one of my favorite parts is that, if you've played both games on the same system, the choices you made in 1 can carry over into 2. For example, one character in the first game, Zevran, attacks you. You have the choice to kill him and let him join your team. If you let him join you, then he shows up a few other times in 2 and if you develop a romance with him in 1 then he mentions that 'he's already spoken for' in two (you're given the option to sleep with him, if you don't romance him in 1 then he doesn't deny you). If you have him killed in 1 then he doesn't come up at all in 2, the options are limitless.

Dragon Age 2 is a huge leap in graphics and is actually my preferred game of the two. One big draw back to 2 is that you have to play as a human, unlike Dragon Age 1 where you get to choose from 3 races. The fighting style is also drastically different, especially when it comes to mages. Where in 1 you're strictly limited to magic/long distance attacks, in two, mages can get up close and actually beat people with that cool stick they always carry around, on top of many more spells that can be taught. Dragon Age 2 also has a system where you HAVE to play through everything and do every mission in order to proceed through the story, which, depending on the person, can be good or bad. It's incredibly time consuming and sometimes gets a little dull or boring with the lengthy dialog, however it does ensure that you don't miss anything, whereas in 1 you can skip right through the minor side missions and miss a large portion of the main story if you're not careful.

Overall these two games are both incredibly fun and I sit impatiently waiting for the third. I would highly

suggest getting these two games together and playing them in order (it's not that hard people, there are only 2). The fact that the first game carries into the second is very interesting and makes all the effort you put into the first one shine though into the second, which is surprisingly satisfying.