Final Fantasy: Dissidia Sucks

Why would I saw it does? It’s a highly rated game and it appears as a lot of people love it. Here’s the reasons why I say it sucks.

1. Undefined/New Genre

What game is FFD? Is it a fighting game? A 3D platformer? An RPG? Answer from wikipidia :

Dissidia: Final Fantasy’s genre has been described as “dramatic progressive action” and its graphics are in three dimensions.

WTF is that? To be honest, FFD has a lot of potential as a 3D platformer+fighting game. The learning curve isn’t steep and beginners can pick up the game easily, however there is one thing that demolishes all this greatness of a game. What is it? The RPG elements.

Lets say a friend challenged you, your best character is a level 20 Cloud while he battles you using a level 70 Sepiroth. Your attacks a mere scratches to him while his attacks probably cause him to win the match. Sure there’s such a thing called “HANDICAP” to “even things out”, but the truth is it doesn’t. A high level character has access to a variety of different skills as well as better equipment and materia.

2. The need to grind/frustrating gameplay

As stated earlier, there are RPG elements, to be stronger you have to fight more so that your character’s level improves. This is the exact opposite of how fighting games should be. In traditional fighting games, all characters are balanced out so that none are dramatically better than the rest. When a player practices, he gets better in using that character. That character will always remain the same and not grow stronger instead the player is the one who is now “stronger”.

What’s the maximum level you can get up to? 100. How many characters are there in FFD? 22. If it takes 10 battles to level up once (very loose estimate) you would still need to play more or less 22000 matches to max them all out. That’s so fun!

3. Retarded story mode

The title “FINAL FANTASY” has always been synonymous with a game with an epic story/plot development. Players can explore the world, feel it and breathe it. Learn the character’s personality. Blablabla…. I can summarize the game’s “main story” :

There are 2 entities, one good, one evil. They summon the main heroes/villains from various Final Fantasy games to fight for them.

Oh great. You know, I could come up a storyline for the game checkers :

There are 2 sides, one black, one red/white (depending on your set). They use a number of soldiers to fight for them.

3. NO WAY TO GRIND in story mode.

This can possibly be an extension to the second point. In normal RPG or any other games that I know of, a player can finish the story mode without needing to quit the story mode in order to proceed/win the game. During the course of FFD’s many storylines (each character has their own), there will be battles with bosses or enemies that are 10 or more levels higher than the player. These battles are not as rare as one might assume and they are downright frustrating. The enemy can defeat the player in less than 10 seconds if the player makes a mistake, where else the player has to carefully drag out the battle for minutes, carefully slicing a small piece of the enemy at a time while taking care not to get hit.

A proper fighting game’s match would last for 1 and a half minute at most with most matches ending within 30 seconds. So how does the player expect to win this “impossible battle”? Pure skill is possible but takes a very long time. The other alternative would be to grind. So a player would think, “hmm… The opponent is too strong for me, I should increase my character’s level to fight him/her,” which is quite typical for an RPG player. To the player’s horror, they will come to realize that there are no “random battles” or any way to fight more enemies than the preset enemies given during the story mode.

Oh great, so how does the player make their character stronger? Quit the story mode and play the arcade mode. Grind in the arcade mode. What a nice concept. There goes the RPG immersion. RPG battles are made in a way that it seems logical to be fighting a character/boss/lowly minion. FFD is quick to remind us that it isn’t an RPG and that the game is so retarded that the player is forced to quit the story mode to become stronger and return back later.

4. Repetitive gameplay

So what does the player do in the game? FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT and FIGHT. One may point out that in between fights, a player might tinker with their character by equipping new equipment, skills and materia (summons) but in the end to get all their equipment, skills and materia they are still required to fight.

Ah damn, I have to bring up another issue regarding the story mode again. Through out the story mode, the player will keep battling the same 22 characters over and over again. Most of the character’s play and feel the same. It becomes a game of rock paper scissors. When to block? When to evade? When to attack?

Does anyone want to argue with me on this point? If they do, I’ll remind them that there is the “chase”/”duel” mode. When this occurs the players take turns attacking each other. The attacker can choose to use a heavy attack or a regular attack or opt to do nothing (ending the mode). The attacker has roughly 5 seconds to decide. The defending player can only dodge/evade, light attacks require the player to dodge fast while heavy attacks require the player to delay the dodge by half a second (or is it one second?). If the defending player manages to evade the attack, the roles will be reversed where the defender becomes the attacker and the attacker becomes the defender. This mode ends when the attacker does nothing or when the attacker manages to hit the defender with a heavy attack. Rock,paper, scissors indeed.

Conclusion

FFD is a pretty game, I will never deny that the graphics are good and the cinematics are great. The game play itself though can be improved. The game doesn’t know what it wants to be, trying to be many things but failing to be decent in any (what a spoony bard!).

The game is worth a few hours of play, probably good enough to rent but not great enough for a purchase. The main appeal of the game is the use of Final Fantasy characters. I would believe that the game would have flopped if it weren’t for them.

This game is a definite must for Final Fantasy fanboys/girls. Others will do well steering away from this horrible game. I am well aware that the fanboys/girls would probably disagree to what I have to say but they’re too blinded by their fanboy syndrome to see things as they really are.

Trivia

FFD was originally thought of without using final fantasy characters. The game’s name wasn’t even supposed to carry “Final Fantasy” in it. Furthermore, it was meant to be a PS2 game instead of PSP.

Last word

FFD SUCKS

IM PM

Instant messaging personal message, sometimes some people find a quote that seems so witty or inspirational or they just want to express themselves they would do so by placing whatever they have on their mind on the IM nick.

Example:

From -> SPRox
to
-> SPRox – a shadow hangs within my heart

The example I gave was a “good” example. Some people are retarded enough to change their nicks to PMs. Here’s the same example in a “retarded” form.

From -> SPRox
to
-> A shadow hangs within my heart

Why is this retarded? Because people can’t identify the person from a single glance. As witty as any quote can be I don’t want to waste my time figuring a person’s identity out from their PM.

Putting a PM in a language other than english is a mere slight annoyance to me. It piques my curiosity but I quickly ignore it.

What I do hate is when people put non specific PMs and do not react well to people’s inquiry.

Examples:

The “YOU” Not You
Person’s PM : I MISS YOU
My message to the person : I MISS YOU TOO
Person’s reply : NOT YOU! SOMEONE ELSE!
Why I hate it : First, the person was not specified. It could mean anybody. Despite the fact the probability of it being me is low, don’t blame me for having fun out of it. Second, if you really feel strongly about someone, just get your act together and tell the person, telling everyone on your IM list does nothing.

The “YOU” Dunno Who
Person’s PM : I MISS YOU
My message to the person : Who?
Person’s reply : Don’t know? Hehehehe
Why I hate it : This one is not really annoying but more to playful.

The I’m So Emo but I’m not telling you shit.
Person’s PM : I SO SAD
My message to the person : Awh…. Why so sad? Are you ok? What happened?
Person’s reply : Yeah I’m ok, but I don’t want to talk about it.
Why I hate it : You’re unhappy, you let people know you’re unhappy but you don’t want to talk about it. First of all you make me concerned about you which isn’t a bad thing, but if you’re OK than you shouldn’t let friends know you’re not OK by putting such a PM in the first place. Second, if you’re not willing to talk about it, it can mean either 1 – You’re getting over it or it’s too hurtful that you don’t want to talk about it or 2 – we are not close enough and you do not want to share the details with me. Either way if you make a person concerned about you, you should be responsible to the people who are concerned, instead of letting them be more concerned.

The I’m So Emo but I’m not around or too busy to tell you anything
Person’s PM : I SO SAD
My message to the person : Awh…. Why so sad? Are you ok? What happened?
Person’s reply : (NONE – either the person chose not to reply or is AFK)
Why I hate it : Similar to the above but much more worse, getting no replies may imply that you are so damn emo that you can’t reply properly OR it might even imply that I am the person who caused them to be emo hence getting no replies from you.

I use the term I and you out of convenience, these reflect my thoughts but I am sure there are others who share my same thoughts.

And yeah, I do hate how people dislike their PMs being nitpicked or questioned. PMs can be a source of conversation so expect it to be nitpicked, expect a barrage of questions.

People might say I’m a busy body or that I should mind my own business. These people easily find themselves in an MSN group I named “People I shouldn’t bother about” and at times I conveniently delete them off.

Happy 10th MSN!

MSN, a “popular” instant messaging software has recently turned 10. I have no love towards this MSN as I find it retarded.

Why do I use MSN? Frankly I never did want to use MSN. I was a loyal ICQ user, I shunned both MSN and Yahoo Messenger (YM). I was forced to jump on the MSN bandwagon during my years in college due to the fact the administrators had problems setting up the hostel connection which made connecting to ICQ a hassle or downright impossible. MSN on the other hand was unaffected.

MSN, the first time I used it, it felt liberating in a sense. I did not need to redownload ICQ whenever I was in a lab as Windows Messenger is usually pre-installed in most Windows machines. It also came lightweight, using less resources. I was content. Not long after we were “encouraged” to upgrade to MSN messenger, which allowed some games to be played and a whole variety of “features”. Finally we have LIVE Messenger.

Live messenger notified me of MSN’s 10th birthday and prompted me to download a patch for new features, curious I did just that. A small- less than 2MB file was downloaded in an instant, which I promptly installed. So what features did I get? A lousy MSN new skin which is FUGLY. Thanks MSN. Thanks a lot. It changed my default background as well as my display picture too. Thanks, now I have to go through the hassle of resetting my background and display picture. Not to forget that when installing the patch, it tries to set Bing as the default search engine and MSN as the default homepage. Luckily I am not dumb enough to keep pressing yes without a bit of reading.

MSN.

What else do I love you for?

1. Introducing me to a “feature” called nudge. I guess the people who developed this system are the kind of people who would buy a drum for a person’s 5 year old child. Disregarding or for the purpose of allowing the child to cause a lot of noise to the distress of their parents.

2. Unsent messages. This is super annoying. Relationships can turn sour due to these (haven’t occurred to me before) which may sound exaggerated but the likelihood is still there. On a more “realistic” note, this is freaking annoying. Typing out a series of messages, only to have them not sent, copy pasting them again to resend them but it still produces the same effect. MSN is so unreliable that even it’s unsent messages message are sometimes actually sent causing the receiver to receive duplicates of a single message due to copy pasting.

3. For being fat. LIVE MSN is resource hungry, it has an advert which can be disruptive and has buttons to “features” that I couldn’t care less for.

4. For not being able to connect to your own bloody network. MSN sometimes fails to work leaving the user no idea why. A techie (like me) would have to check the error code generated and perform a search (on google not Bing) to find out what caused the error and how to fix it. Not every one is a techie. MSN is such a bastard, working well for months and suddenly decide not to work on a random day for no apparent reason.

5. Custom emoticons. Sure they’re fun and interesting, but last I checked, I use MSN to communicate or to share files, not to display custom emoticons.

Yes MSN I bloody love you. Hope you have another 10 years of sucking like hell.

GG

If you ever hear a youth or gamer talk you may sometimes say them say GG (each G is pronounced the same way the letter G is pronounced).

Example:
Guy A : I took out my bank notes and a gush of wind blew them all away.
Guy B : GG.

or

Guy A : OH SHIT I LOCKED MY CAR KEYS IN THE CAR! GG!

What is this GG?

GG is the shorthand for “good game” and is typically used by gamers. “Good game” is usually mentioned at the end of match between at least 2 opposing teams. Initially it was mentioned if the competitors felt that the match/game was a competitive one and was worth playing, but it slowly “evolved” into an end game tradition where players would tell each other “good game” at the end of every match. Gamers do the same, but they use GG instead of “good game” as it is short and easy to type (2 taps on the G key). Usually in a competitive game, especially one that revolves around strategy, a game could take over half an hour or possibly more. The outcome of the match between 2 expert players would be hard to predict, however when a player loses hope or concludes that they can not win the match, they would type GG to the opponent signifying the end of the match.

GG evolved from being an end game courtesy to a slew of different meanings ranging from “its hopeless/over/near the end” to “nothing else can be done”.

GG originates from gamers. However some gamer retards who play Ragnarok Online would assume that GG would signify a grin. I don’t blame them too much because their concept is based on an emoticon shortcut “/gg” which would produce a grinning emoticon. If these people only use it in that context in their Ragnarok community it would be normal, but some of them use it nonchalantly on other channels.

The amount of gamers nowadays is “A LOT”. Many people are exposed to GG and have started to learn how to use it. However sometimes people who do not know how GG originated (or they aren’t a gamer) uses GG but does not really know what it can signify.

Example:

GG

Out of context

Rachel to Vincent : Squeeze me!
5 minutes later : Do me!

Vanessa Lim Su Peng (she requested I put the full name in): Put your tongue in!

PeiWun : Stop tonguing me!

Hmmm… I seem to have forgotten a lot… This post was supposed to be much longer… Oh well…

It’s not over till the fat lady sings!

The last time I was ever involved with a BISDS choir performance was way back during my Moggallana class. That was probably around 1998. More than a decade ago. This year I have been given a chance to be a part of OVOM (one voice one melody). Even though it was started by Van (if I’m not mistaken), she did not claim ownership to the group and the group belonged to its members (am I making this up?). I enjoy singing but I am well aware of the limitations of my voice, I was surprised that I even got involved requiring me to sing. I have no complaints on this, it is a fun experience and I get to learn a lot of new things, like soprano spagghettio alberto tombrono etc etc.

Last Saturday OVOM performed their “last” performance. I am happy to have been involved in it. Hearing “you did not go out of tune” from Van after the event was over was great considering how I messed up one of her practices (that’s on some other post).

Months prior, I would say Van was “emo”. She was sad that OVOM would end as most of the youth group/members are having SPM this year, in fact a number couldn’t make it to this “last” performance. Thinking about it, it is sad as in the future there might not be a chance for this group of friends (they prefer to say family) to get together for practices and go for performances. However I doubt that that was the last performance.

Unlike previous BISDS choir groups, OVOM has surpassed the previous choir groups in both quality and fellowship. The relationship between the friends made during OVOM is similar to being in a family. I would even assume that it could even surpass a normal family’s bond.

I cannot foresee the future, but I am sure that this is not the end of OVOM. Some faces may be missing, some unknown faces would appear and the numbers could be different but OVOM will persevere.

I should touch up my guitar skills, and take a step back from singing and concentrating on the guitar…..

Anime quality degrading

Anime used to have the characteristic of something “new” or “out of the box”. It was made parents worry about letting their children watch “cartoons”. Anime could contain perversion, violence and touch many sensitive issues such as religion, politics or even philosophy.

I used to love anime a lot and wanted to “watch them all” (coz you know – you gotta watch em all). That was years ago. Almost every single anime I watched was entertaining.

Nowadays everything is so saturated, many ideas are being reused and recycled which would be a good thing if it were paper and plastic unfortunately ideas are not paper nor plastic.

Anime used to be masterpieces each unique and priceless. It’s popularity is the cause for it’s own demise. With higher demand, anime started being mass produced to meet that demand. To make matters worse, there are too many aspiring mangaka (people who draw manga, which normally leads them to get in to the anime business) out in the market. The cost of manufacturing anime keeps reducing to remain profitable which is difficult especially with the internet technology that we have today. 10 years ago downloading a hundred megabyte file would take days to weeks. The slow speed was a bane to internet users everywhere but it did help curb another thing that was killing off the anime industry. That thing is piracy.

As if anime sales weren’t bad enough, usually anime’s are televised, further reducing the need for a person to buy the DVD/VCD set. However producers have thought up of an ingenious marketing strategy to combat this. They include “cut/deleted” or extra scenes not shown on the televised version into their merchandise.

Marketing. One thing all marketers should know is that sex sells. If I am not mistaken, the word “fanservice” was created because of anime. What is this “fanservice”? Fanservice can roughly be defined as the depicting a character (most usually but not limited to female characters) in embarrassing/revealing/obscene/suggestive postures/positions where it could have been removed and not affect the plot in anyway. For an example a gust of wind causing a girl’s skirt to lift thereby exposing her panties. In fact there are many anime that cash in on this concept and base their entire storyline on fanservice. Usually to lower the “age rating” of an anime to allow it to be more accessible to more viewers, characters could be naked but have their “special bits” covered by strategic placement of random objects or even mist or blur effect.

Enter Blueray. The age of HD TV. High definition. Everything is much clearer, and has much more details on blueray. How do producer’s entice people to get blue ray discs? One method is to remove the strategically placed objects or fog/blur effect as mentioned previously, allowing the viewer to see “everything” in full glory. Hey! It’s not called blueray for nothing! You get to see “details” that you normally can’t with it!

Degradation!

Sony Ericsson C702

I love my I-mobile 902, however it’s a hassle to use. It’s camera is one of the best and made it gain the title of being a “legendary” handphone due to it’s camera. However the camera is not too good for taking casual shots. It is hard to see if the images turned up blurry (which normally happens due to the lack of image stabilizers). It’s phone functions such as messaging are slow. SLOW. Too slow for me to bear…

Hence I did some research and got myself a second hand 1 year old Sony Ericsson C702 for RM420.

I’m lazy to type now so I’ll just post some media.

1megapixel (as usual) macro shot:

Unedited vid (except for the annotations)

Edited the very next day. the hp is still ok but I found out that there was a crack in the casing, draining the water out. Hmmm…
WaterProof test = It’s water resistant, not waterproof (new ones c702 can take more than what I did, just google around)
ShockResistance test = Yup, no problems with the phone being thrown around

Conclusion: I like this phone! Real rugged, but if I change the housing, I’d probably not purposely throw it around anymore. In addition to that I’d like to point out that no one has permission to throw my phone around unless I say so.

Delirious Diarrhea

Last “night” I was chatting with Yan Leng kinda late past my bedtime. After she went off, I proceeded to crash on my bed.

I may have been dreaming but somehow there I remembered that Yan Leng told me that there was a carton full of wine bottles that have been shaken up. At the same time I knew she never did tell me that in real life, but the memory of her telling me it was vivid. A dream I guess. Probably the dream meant to tell me that something wanted to burst.

Burst out it did.

I had diarrhea all the morning…

>_<

I killed MJ

Back in the 80’s growing up as a child. MJ was my idol. Yes, there was a time that I had someone that I looked up to as an idol (despite how I am now – things change). Having my first walkman thanks to my beloved mother, one of the first few cassettes that I wanted to get my hands on were any with MJ’s songs. I think my first exposure to MJ was through the song, “Bad.” You know I’m bad! I’m bad! Really really bad! Thriller was the first song with a music video that spooked the shit out of me at that time up to the point that even listening to the song made me mentally associate it with fear – causing me to have goosebumps listening to it. Black or White impressed me with it’s face morphing. I really loved playing it over and over again to watch the face morphing.

Ah… Those childhood memories.

He was my idol. I wanted every picture of him, I wanted to know about him. Crave. Desire (not sexually not a bit not at all). Want.

As time passed, information technology became more powerful. Information could easily be found.

Scandals, rumours, paparazzi.

A lot of people lamented on how the paparazzi killed MJ.

No they didn’t.

I did.

I was the one who hungrily scoured for information. I was the one begging for information. I was the one who gave the paparazzi income. Had I not wanted to know all such things. Had I have no desire to see his pictures. The paparazzi would not give him any problem.

I want to see MJ perform. I! I! I!

I killed MJ.

Before his death, roughly a week before, he did tell his manager that he was going to break. He couldn’t take it any more. His manager had booked him for more performances than he could handle. MJ was suffering from depression. Being the king of pop was not easy. People looked up to him. He was the idol of billions. His voice was legendary. WAS. He grew old. His voice is not as of before. 20 years ago. He was a revolutionary. He “developed”/popularized the “Moonwalk” as well as the “Sunwalk” (which I would say is the basis of shuffling). He was the one who massage ones ears with his voice and caress one’s eyes with his dance. He forced other artists to up the ante, learning how to dance, how to choreograph. Dancing can be tiring. MJ is near 50. He was depressed. He knew he was not in the shape he was 20 years ago. He had a reputation to defend. He had expectations to live up to. He couldn’t take it. Everything was too much for him.

More more give me more. A lot of people criticized Britney Spears for her actions. It is easy to criticize. It is easy to forget that celebrities are different from normal people, yet inside they are normal people.

The contents of an egg is protected by it’s shell. Apply enough pressure and the shell will crack, exposing it’s vulnerable contents.

I digress.

Recently I stumbled upon some old pictures of MJ.

It is weird, the feeling I am feeling. I do not know this man. I have never met him. However I feel sad, I feel a sense of loss all the same. This man. This entertainer. The person I had always adored while I was growing up had passed away.

I think I may have not wanted to give him a “tribute”, feeling this sense of loss, this sadness… He must have meant something to me. Perhaps I can liken it to a guy clearing out his room after 10-20 years, finding his favourite toy but discovering that it is broken beyond repair.

MJ changed. He was black, he was white. He grew old.

Frankly, when I first read about his death, I thought it was a poor joke. Conducting a quick research proved me sadly wrong.

How old was he? He was approaching 50.

MJ had always covered his appearance. His recent pictures showed him increasingly less attractive than before. However when I read the news of his death. Whenever I see the name “MICHEAL JACKSON”. The first thing I would remember is a young entertainer shouting “HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!” in BAD. In my mind. He never aged. MJ was my idol.

MJ is gone.