[General] Awesome game music that you need to hear before you die (Part 1/2)

Hey all.

So, I've been pretty caught up in Tales of Graces f and waiting for Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn to start so I haven't really updated this much. However, whilst listening to a couple of OSTs today, I thought I would do a post like this.

One thing I love about Japanese video games is that they usually have some fantastic music. I may be a little biased, but growing up with Final Fantasy, I have had the pleasure of listening to some awesome tracks over the years. Of course, other Japanese games I've played have had awesome OSTs too. For example, Legend of Zelda, Lost Odyssey and Devil May Cry 4 come to mind.

Any way, so this blog post is just a bit of fun really. Here are a few of my favourite Japanese game music tracks in no particular order:

1. Kaette kuru, kitto (Lost Odyssey)

When this plays in the game... tears were shed, OK. I think my mum was cutting onions somewhere. There is an English version, but I think the Japanese version is way more touching.

2. J.E.N.O.V.A (Final Fantasy VII)

This terrified me when I was younger. I thought it was so creepy. But now I'm older... it's so awesome. The Final Fantasy VII Advent Children version is good as well, but nothing beats the original.

3. The Landing (Final Fantasy VIII)

This plays at such an awesome part in the game, which really contributes to how awesome it is. It made you feel so awesome. I would so play this on my commute to work (if I had a job and a car...). It'd get you so pumped up.

4. Wind Waker Main Theme (Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker)

Easily one of my favourite Legend of Zelda games. There was just something very appealing about sailing around the seas on a boat... all that freedom!

5.  The Price of Freedom (Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core)

Get the tissues ready. The price of freedom is so high it makes you want to cry... 

...and that's all for now! There will be a part two, once I decide on a few more tracks. It's hard making sure they are not all Final Fantasy tracks.

Let me know your favourite tracks! I'll add them in the next post. Make sure to comment below!

[MMO] My Phase 4/Open Beta Experience and Error 3102

Hello, hello...

Disclaimer: This is a long one. Skip past the wall of text to to get to the photos. 

Sorry for not updating much recently. This weekend marked the final phase of Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn, and what an eventful weekend it has been.

If you were in the previous Beta tests, Phase 4 began on Friday. I was unable to play because I was busy on that day, but it seems the day went by without a hitch. Many budding players all logged on, loaded up their designs from character creation and got straight into the game.

However, Saturday and Sunday saw a lot of problems. People were getting kicked out of servers, servers were too full, people couldn't create characters on their desired servers so had to go to other ones... it was hectic. I somehow managed to miss all this by fifteen minutes. On Saturday morning, around 9.45AM (UK Time), I decided I would go on Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn. It all loaded up fine, I selected my character design and off I went. According to my boyfriend, fifteen minutes after that open beta began - which then was followed by all the server problems. I got very... very lucky.

A major problem over the weekend was "Error 3102". Basically, when players are trying to sign in, they are greeted with this error code. So, everyone turned to the forums, making multiple threads about the error. The forum moderators responded to this and made an official thread for the error. They asked people who were experiencing the error to list their character name and server. That thread now, reportedly, has over 1,000 posts. The forums are down currently so I am unable to check what the exact page count and post count is, but a lot of people are suffering from this error.

I am one of the lucky ones and it didn't affect me - but it did affect my boyfriend. Now, since phase 1, he has dutifully tested and provided feedback. So, as you can imagine, being locked out of the game for the beta weekend has had quite an impact. He has not been able to log in on his character since Friday. I can imagine there are so many other people who are in the same boat.

However, it is a beta test. It exists purely to test for things like this. It is also open beta, meaning anyone could sign up and log onto the game. At one point, the game was reported to have over 120,000 concurrent connections. There was so many people trying to get into the game, that Square Enix had to open up two new servers on the Japanese side. I hear today they also opened up two new servers on the EU/NA side, and consequently locked all the other servers in a move to push players onto the new servers, and hopefully spread out the amount of players.

Crazy. The commercial that was released to the public the other day has obviously done it's job. They've amassed more players than they can handle. Of course, one does wonder, all the errors and server shut downs have probably pushed a lot of people away, but still - they really have made an impact. The official launch is getting ever so close. One side of me is wondering if the game will crash again, or will they have learned from this weekend and be able to handle it better. Also, with so many people rushing to play the game, it may end up being a historically huge launch... we can only wait and see.

My Phase 4/Open Beta Experience ...told in pictures.


I managed to get a good days worth of Phase 4, and took some screen shots of my adventures. I rolled a Miqo'te Thaumaturge. She is a Seeker of the Moon named "Aylin Moon". (Don't roll your eyes! I'm not good at names...).

And here she is...

She hasn't quite grasped the concept of gloves yet

Uh... that could have went better. This is just shortly after I made her. She is sporting a lovely mage hat which almost resembles a sombrero. She's rocking it.

Ready to explore!

There we go! Minus the interface... she randomly has... across her legs! Finally worked it out. 

So do you come here often?

She made a new friend. He doesn't talk much. Keeps repeating "Kweh", for reasons she couldn't understand. There also another one of them in the background... showing us what he thinks of it all.

This is awkward.

Ended up in a pretty awkward situation with a random guy in a pub. He kept falling off the chair. She just acted like she wasn't looking. (She was.)

Her eyes look like moons. I went all out with her.

Isn't she cute? I never really liked the idea of face paint but considering she is a THM, and she has such bright eyes... I decided to go with it. Obviously, the hat really sets off her eyes here. Meow.

I am the tallest one here. Ha.

After some adventuring, some killing, some questing, some ooh-ing and aah-ing... I got some new robes from the little Lalafell's in the THM guild! They totally make her oven gloves mittens hand gear look awesome.

Ooh, flashy

Here she is in action, showing those Cactaurs who's boss. I love the cactuar in this picture. It's so like "Come at me bro!". It even brought it's friend. "We can so take her on!". Silly Cactuars. 

ALL DEM THMs

Helping out in a FATE. I found it hilarious how many THMs were there. THAUMATURGES, ASSEMBLE! You ain't got nothing on our Blizzards, Fires, Thunders, Sleeps, Tranposes... we own Thanalan.

This...this would make a pretty cool hat.

NEW ROBES! NEW THREADS! EAR SLOTS! So I marked the occasion with this fancy tourist-y picture. She doesn't look too happy about it all to be honest.

This adventurer business ain't too shabby.

Upon returning to Ul'dah, I was informed I now had a room at the inn. Went to check it out. My reaction was something like, "Niiiiiiice." Pretty spacious. Good amount of natural light. Good storage. A cute little table. A very flat bed.

Maybe it's too little.

The table could be better. Can just see her little ears popping up at the top there.

Perfect weather for mischief.

Upon returning outside... It was foggy in Ul'dah! I had read the patch notes and was aware that they had added in the new weather cycles, but this was my first time seeing Ul'dah being anything other than sunny. It is really well done... I loved it when it was foggy.

Action shot

Weather soon cleared up and I was back on the adventure - this time I had a friend! Boyfriend had to make another character just to get on the server. But any where, she looks pretty awesome when she's casting.

And that's it...! That is all I got up to really. I managed to get to about level 12. But I am purposely taking my time with levelling - I really enjoy the story and the scenery, so I do tend to go off on tangents and just go off exploring.

My thoughts so far... I love this game. Considering I've been able to take such fun screenshots and spend more time running around, just soaking up the atmosphere says a lot. I am really excited for full release and although all the server problems it has experienced this weekend is a little worrying... as I said before, it is a beta test. These things happen.

I am really enjoying playing THM. When I get to level 15, I will be switching over to Arcanist. I am quite looking forward to it! I think from today onwards, I will document my time on FFXIV: ARR like I have here. It's fun.

I leave you with this quite serene picture to see you off.

If you have any cool screenshots or stories from your time on Beta, let me know in the comments box below! :)

[MMO] Final Fantasy XIV Japanese TV Commercial Released

It looks like the advertising for Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn is in full swing in Japan!



Quite an interesting commercial - a lot more interesting than the leaked one (which eventually turned out to be the actual one!

What I thought was pretty cool was this shot of some armor...

On a Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn group I follow, someone suggested it was the Paladin AF+1 gear. It's looking pretty snazzy.

The Japanese commercial is advertising the release/launch date which is the 27th August and the Open Beta/Phase 4 dates which is 17th August until the 19th August.

Exciting stuff. Personally... I can't wait! I genuinely feel sorry for this blog... It will either turn into an FFXIV blog or I'll never update it.

I must find a balance... ;-)

[PS3/Vita] Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD English 30 Minute Audio Sample

Breathes in...

SOME MORE INFORMATION ON FINAL FANTASY X/X-2 HD: 30 MINUTE AUDIO CLIP AND NEW SCREENS *squee*

Breathes out...

I'm bad at headlines, ok?

A little background:
Square Enix announced a HD remaster (Note: not remake - there is an important difference. I think.) of the most amazing game to ever grace the PS2 Final Fantasy X and the not so great Final Fantasy X-2. 

It's not a remake because it's not being completely remade. They are essentially just remastering it. Updating the textures, audio and cleaning off a few cobwebs (it has been 12 years since it was released. Bet that makes you feel old!).

Square Enix recently released a sample of a 30 min audio "episode", to give you an idea of how it's all going to sound.

As you can hear - doesn't it sound different? It's totally brand new. And we finally hear how they pronounce Tidus (it took 12 years!).

It has also been confirmed that the Western release of this will feature all the extra content the Japanese games got... so essentially it's the international version. If that makes sense. Dark Aeons, Penance and I think the "Last Mission" from FFX-2 is included on there as well. 

There has also been a ton of new screens released showcasing what it looks like... and it's looking great. 

Menus have been updated and there's trophies!

There hasn't been an release date announced yet, but I think it's safe to assume it will be dropping later this year. It will be available on PS3 and PS Vita.

Sources: EMGNow (more pictures!), Playstation Blog

[PS3] Tales of Xillia is making waves!

Tales of Xillia was originally released in Japan almost two years ago(!) and has only just been released in the US, with an EU released scheduled for August 9th.

It has been getting great reviews all around, when first announced in Japan, it got the most pre-orders out of all the Tales games, as well as getting a 39/40 from the popular Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu.
IGN have just recently gave the game 8.0/10, saying that the combat is fun, has an interesting story and lots of replay value.

The game is set in a world that has been divided into two by a spirit called Maxwell. In one world, Rieze Maxia, they can all use mana and live in harmony with the spirits, whilst in the other world, Elympios, they all use advanced technology and use the lives of the spirits to supply power. (You can probably see where this is going.) In order to stop them from doing this, Maxwell created a barrier around Rieze Maxia, but somehow the folks in Elympios have managed to break in, form a group and start stealing spirits.

In Tales of Xillia, there are two protagonists and at the beginning of the game you can choose which one to play. One is Jude Mathis, who at the time of the game is a medical student investigating a research facility and treating patients with suspicious injuries. Whilst there, he meets Millia Maxwell, the other protagonist who just so happens to be Maxwell's successor. The two of them then set off an adventure to stop the folks from Elympios creating a weapon powered by Spyrix (which uses the lives of the spirits!).

Millia Maxwell

It seems that the story is a stand alone, so no knowledge of the previous games is needed. However, if you are a fan of the series, it seems there is a lot of things tucked away in the game for you too.

What really interests me about Tales of Xillia is the fact you can choose from two characters at the beginning of the game. It seems that one story isn't better than the other and it is really just down to preference and how you want to play but from reading around it seems Jude's story is a bit better, whereas Milla has better battle music. So it's your call! 

The combat seems to be like any other Tales game, with a few added elements. I haven't really played any Tales of games so here is a video showing the combat! (It's better than me trying to explain it.)

As you can probably tell, it isn't a turn based system. It kind of reminds me of Star Ocean, which had some amazingly fun combat, so if you were hoping for a turn based system - don't be put off! Battles like this are usually fun and get really challenging so be open-minded! :)

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Get your own copy of Tales of Xillia at PlayAsia! (US only m'afraid! EU will version will be up in a few days so I will update this!) Though it seems this has no region protection so if you are really desperate for it, you're in luck!

Practise your Japanese and get the JP version!
And if you are a collector like me, get the game guide! Awesome if you can read Japanese then you have this awesome guide and really cool collectors item. I'm being serious. I think it's awesome.

Check out IGN's review of the game here!

[PS4/Xbox One] Some Bad News Or Good News, Depending On How You Look At It

Square Enix trademarked "A World of the VERSUS Epic" ... What do they have up their sleeve?

It has been reported that Square Enix have trademarked "A World of the VERSUS Epic". This spells one thing. Sequels. A lot of sequels. Set out in a compilation. Yipee.

The reason I am not so excited for this is... look at Final Fantasy XIII. From the start we all knew that they wanted to do more than just one game with it, and I thought that came in the form of Final Fantasy Versus XIII. I mean they showed off images of Lightning and Noctis contrasting with one another, and it looked like it was going to be something awesome.

Then, the years go by, Versus disappears off the face of the earth and we are left with XIII, XIII-2 and Final Fantasy XIII: Lightning Returns. Final Fantasy Versus XIII reappears at this years E3 but is now Final Fantasy XV, leaving fans who have been following it all like, "What the hell just happened?"

But that aside, Final Fantasy XV as a stand-alone game does look alright. They have said from the start the game play would be something different, so those who are waiting for a classic turn-based FF may have to wait a little longer. But even so, it looks fun. It looks promising. But that is the game play. The premise for the story is a "fantasy based on reality", and it looks like they have plans to squeeze a few more games out of it.

I mean, I cannot say anything now because we don't even know if the story/game is good yet. But I suppose what I'm trying to say is I'm worried that it's going to be just like what happened with FFXIII. Fans just saying, "Please stop milking XIII, we're done with it." - Will fans be saying that with XV?

I will be honest with you guys - I never finished XIII, I never played XIII-2 and I think Lightning Returns looks ridiculous. And I am someone who has loved Final Fantasy since I could hold a controller. It worries me that fans who have been around a long time like me, and even those who have been around even longer, are losing all faith in this series. What if this "epic" they have planned is the final nail in the coffin?

But alas, as I say, we cannot really say anything yet as we could all end up loving this game. But these are just my initial thoughts and feelings. It may be fun to go back and read this when the game is out. Ha.

To summarise, this will be a compilation, that will be a part of the Fabula Novis Crystallis compilation. We heard you like compilations, so we put a compilation in your compilation so you can compil-- yeah you get the joke.

Any way, here is some game-play footage of XV, so you can see for yourselves where they are going with this game. 

(Psst. I secretly think this looks awesome.)

Source: Nova Crystallis

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Interested in Lightning Returns? Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII | Buy Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII (US Version) for PlayStation 3 (PS3)

[MMO] Even More Fun With Character Creation & Live letter VIII

SORRY. More FFXIV. It is a mixture of withdrawal symptoms and people making up really fun threads on the Final Fantasy XIV Beta Forums that is causing all this. Following the success of the Lala Yourself thread, they've thought up a "Male<->Female" thread. I absolutely loved the Lala one so I had to do this.

Don't they look like twins!?! 

Man, I had so much fun doing this. I am probably going to carry it on and do it with other characters I've made. Make Lalafell versions of them all and make them the opposite sex. It's too fun man. You know it's going to be a good game if it has people sat there for hours making character after character, just to keep the withdrawal symptoms at bay!

Any way, on the topic of Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn, it seems the next Producer Live Letter will be broadcast in the next couple of days. It seems the next one will be on the 8th, so maybe they will announce the dates for Phase 4, and we can all stop making characters on character creation.

I will be doing live updates during the Producer Live Letter so if you can't watch/don't understand Japanese/just want to watch me get excited and fan girl over Yoshi-P then you can do so at @aoiciely/http://www.twitter.com/aoiciely !

Now I'm off to go make a million more characters. Gief me XIV nao. :(

[MMO] More Fun With Character Creation

I spotted this in a thread on a Final Fantasy community, thought it was a fun idea.

Lala Yourself!

The idea is you make your main character on Final Fantasy XIV into Lalafell then post up the results. 

I thought it was a really cute idea so I thought I would give it a shot...

Before

After

I cannot get over how adorable she looks haha! If Miqo'tes weren't so perfect I would make a Lalafell. But I like how cheeky and devilish my Miqo'te looks, where as the Lalafell is more innocent and cute - which isn't bad - but I prefer the Miqo'te (;

Any way - you guys should give it a go! Give it a shot and "Lala"  your main. Feel free to post your designs down below~ :)

[MMO] So I Had Some Fun...

Warning... this is going to be a picture heavy post! I don't really know how to make it less picture heavy (apart from get rid of pictures) and one picture is especially huge but just bear with me... it's full of pretty Final Fantasy XIV characters.


As you may all already know, on August 1st Square Enix released a new benchmark along with some character creation for all of us to play with as we eagerly await the release of Final Fantasy XIV.

I was exceptionally bored today so I played around with it for a few hours and came out with a few designs. I thought I would share them all here. I did a lot of them but I only ended up like 3 or 4 ... I'm picky. I'm also not that adventurous with designs as others are, but hey, I try my best.

Any way, I also got Photoshop CS6 back again today (like the new banner? It is should be way better quality but blogger took a huge crap on it) so I created this little introductory image...

Yaaay!

I made this purely to get back into Photoshop... but I liked enough so I thought I would put it here. The Miqo'te in that is the first design I did, and was originally the design I was going to go with but then I ended up playing with it more and...

Out came this cutie. (She is also the Miqo'te in my banner! She will be this blogs mascot... for now). Whenever I make Miqo'tes, I usually always make them Seekers of the Sun, but instead decided to experiment with a Keeper of the Moon...

Those eyes. Her eyes are white so they kind of all blend in but those eyes. I absolutely love how large their pupils are! I love how the Seekers of the Sun have small pupils and huge irises, but I love how the Keepers of the Moon have huge pupils and little irises... it's just too cute ♡

I think she will make a purrrfect Thaumarturge. 

Then, I went onto make a Roedagyn... Such strong women.

I originally went with this hairstyle...

But I thought it was too subtle and for such a strong looking character it didn't suit her. So after some playing around...

I saved this as "choo choo motherf*cker...apologies.

YEAH, THAT'S MORE LIKE IT!

I absolutely love this design. I was really chuffed with myself. Her hair looks like fire man, and look at that pose! I made her eyes a bright crystal blue to contrast with her skin and eyes. Man, if I wasn't so dead set on Miqo'te, this would be my main. She rocks my socks. 

Then after I had my fun being inspired by my Roedagyn, I went back to Miqo'te, but this time went male...

I tried to go for a ... I don't even know. Think Baywatch. I love female Miqo'tes but I love the males more. Haha. Out of all the characters, they are perfectly proportional, and just look awesome. I usually don't like facial hair on a character but this guy looked super baby-faced without it so I had to add it :'D. But he is my favourite. What a babe.

I am proud of him. So, I will let this guy see you out. ;)

But in all seriousness, if you haven't already, download the benchmark! I linked it here in this post, download it, see how the game runs on your computer... then get making some characters! The character creation is really flexible and you can do so much more with it - I am just a boring old fart when it comes to character designs. You can really get some unique designs out of it if you spend enough time on it. This here is just a small taste of what you can do.

I wanna see your creations! Link me them! :)

[PS3/Wii U] Monster Hunter Frontier G coming to PS3 and WiiU, announced Capcom Network Game conference

Capcom are currently holding a "Network Game Conference" where it is reported they plan to announce 13 new game titles.

The event seems to be centered around online and smartphone games, as the full name of the event is something like, "Network Game Conference~Next Generation: From online to smartphone, introducing 13 games". (I'm bad at translating, don't shoot me for it!)

It is an update of Monster Hunter Frontier which is already available on PC and Xbox 360.

Announced for PS3 and WiiU

The PS3 and WiiU version will have new servers that are separate to the PC and Xbox 360 servers, and everyone will begin from Hunter Rank 1.

It will be available as a free download and as a physical copy, and the monthly fees will be around 1400 yen ($14, £9). 

The PS3 version will be released on November 20th, and the WiiU version on December 11th.

Source/picture credit: 4Gamer
4Gamer are doing a live update of the conference here on Twitter. 

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Buy Monster Hunter Frontier on PlayAsia

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[Update] Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn commerical taken down

The mystery continues: FFXIV: ARR "commercial" taken down off Youtube. Was it real or fan-made?

I posted up an entry yesterday about a Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn commerical. There was a lot of commotion over it in various FFXIV: ARR communities. It seems that the video has been taken down due to copyright.

The "commercial" consisted of two people sitting in what appears to be a bus(or car?). The windows are all steamy and one of them has written "FFXIV" on the window. Fast forward and suddenly you are shown footage of the initial trailer. It was a bit simplistic and in my opinion, it didn't seem like an advert Square Enix would do for such a huge game. A lot of people on various forums though seemed convinced it was, and a lot of them even liked how simple it was.

It being taken down can mean either two things: it was fan-made and Square Enix brought down the copyright hammer, or it was indeed the actual commercial, and it had indeed been leaked, causing Square Enix do bring down the copyright hammer!

I am sure we will find out soon enough, with the release of the full game just around the corner.

For those of you who did see it before it got taken down, what do you think?

- Jade

[News/PS3] Lightning Returns Premium Demo Event held today

I spotted this on Playstation (Japan)'s Facebook, I will do my best to translate it!

Premium event for Lightning Returns held today

あの"ライトニング"が帰ってくる――

2013年11月21日(木)発売予定・"PS3"用ソフトウェア『LIGHTNING RETURNS:FINAL FANTASY XIII』のプレミアム体験会が本日、開催されました。
期待の超大作をたっぷり１時間も体験プレイできるとあって、来場者の方々も大興奮！ 普段は公開されない、貴重な資料や設定イラストも、たっぷり展示されていましたよ。

"That "Lightning" is returning..."

There was a premium demo event held today for the PS3 game, "LIGHTNING RETURNS: FINAL FANTASY XIII" which is set to be released on 21st November 2013.
The attendees were super excited as they were able to play an hours worth of gameplay. There was also a lot of important information about the game, including some concept art which usually isn't available to the public on display. 

And here are some of the pictures...

All credits go to Playstation (Japan)'s facebook. You can also check out some more images there if you want!

Preorder Final Fantasy XIII: Lightning Returns at PlayAsia.

[MMO/News] Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn TV Commercial

Leaked FFXIV: ARR TV commercial?

It seems the new Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn TV commercial has been leaked!

It seems quite simplistic and not what I would have expected. With such a great FMV they made to announce the ending/shutting down of the FFXIV 1.0 servers, I thought their TV commerical would have been something equally as epic.

Due to the simplicity of it, a lot of people are claiming that it is fan-made.

What do you think? Is this the real deal?

- Jade

[News/Speculation] Possible Angel Beats! announcement after summer...?

Still working on that review. For now, enjoy some new exciting news about Angel Beats!...

Possible Angel Beats! game announcement?

Visual Arts' company director Baba Takahiro was recently asked by a fan on Twitter when they can expect the announcement about an Angel Beats! game, which was supposedly meant to be announced "before summer". The fan also mentioned that it had been 3 years since they first announced it.

Baba replied with "Before summer → after summer." Straight to the point.

A man of a few words - follow him at @vavasyatyou

So, it looks like we can expect some news about the Angel Beats! game "after summer" hopefully. Whenever that may be. I also think it's safe to assume that Key will be working on it as well.

Key, a company who are apart of Visual Arts, are mostly known for the their visual novel games, such as Kanon and Clannad. In the Japanese gamers community, their games are often described as "泣きゲー" (nakigee), games that make you cry. 

Best get the tissues ready.

- Jade