Final Fantasy IX - PS1

If you are a gamer and especially if you like RPGs you must know the Squaresoft series: Final Fantasy.

So in this post I'm talking about the IX game in the series.

I got the game in the Platinum edition for PS1 even if I don't have the console, but my PS2 has retro-compatibility so I can play games for the previous console.

You cannot say by the pictures but the case is big! It has 4 CDs!

You can not only imagine how big the game is but also what the tecnology got from going from CDs to DVDs.

Now more into the game...

Many say that the great and most beautiful game in the series is FF VII (which I'm playing on my PSP).

I'll be talking about the Cloud and friends game in future post, but from what I've played from both I can understand the feelings so many people have for VII but I must say that IX is as good as it and it might be my favourite Final Fantasy game.

We start with Vivi. The Mage in the game.

He's a strange figure but you almost fall in love with him in at the very beginning!

You get to look around the kingdom's town with Vivi learning to look for many objects hidden all over the scenario and also learning how to play the card game (Tetra Master) that works like a mini-game throughout the entire game.

And talking about the scenarios...They are simply breath taking!

I know they were made for a 32bits concole but they truly are one of the most detailed and beautiful scenarios you get to see in a game for PS1 and even for PS2 consoles!

They look like they were hand painted.

After walking around the city you get to enter the castle where a party is taking place.

A traveling theater is performing there but they are not your normal actors people. They intend to kidnap the Princess Garnet!

The thing is that in the middle of it the Princess herself wants to be kidnapped!

One of my favourite scenes occurs during the theater presentation in which you have to simulate a fight and you have to press the right buttons when they appear on the screen. I know this happens a lot in the games, even more in the current games (quick time events) but it is so into context and well made that I repeated the scene a lot of times. Even more because the better you perform the better the audience cheers and you get more money.

You can see that this game is all about the little details.

After this there is trouble all around to make the theater troup flies off the castle in one piece along side with the Princess.

The 'Rusty' comes along too. He is the Princess guard chiefe but he's a failure.

That's when we get to know better the main character of the game: Zidane.

Also we get to know the rest of the theater crew when the ship they were traveling crashes into Evil Forest.

Zidane, the Princess, 'Rusty' and Vivi go into the forest and get in trouble and they are helped by one of Zidane friends which ends up being 'stoned' in the forest.


That made me sad...and if I'm that touch at so early in the game I cannot imagine how it will be in the end!

After that keep their journey together.

I already went into Ice Cave where we meet some evil mage birds that want to stop us. But I did it! And now I'm in some town where we found out that they send weird packages to the Castle.

Something is going on...

The battles work like the other FF games, with ATB bars that need to get filled in order for us to attack.

But if in ither FF games I usually don't like the battles soundtrack but this one I like a lot!

Besides this you get to interact with other FF commons like Choccobos and Moggles. The Moggles are important in the game because it's through them you can save the progress and learn some tips about the game. Also we get to deliever some mail they send to each other. I still have to understand what we must do so.

I know I'm just at the beginning of the journey but I'm already touched by the game.

This might be one of my favourite FF or probably my favourite.

I'll keep you informed about my next adventures.

Good games!

Kingdom Hearts - PS2

This one of the games I waited like a kid in Christmas Eve to get to my PS2 (after the Final Fantasy X).

Just imagining of having a game mixing the great Squaresoft Final Fantasy like characters with the Disney magic was just blowing your mind.

I know that these days the kids don't have to wait for the next Disney instalment to get to watch cartoons. But 20 or more years ago there was Disney rulling all over the planet and behond!

I don't know if you can see but the game's cover is a bit shiny and holographic. It's special!

I bought it right on the release (March 2002) so I got this cover which soon was replaced by a more common one.

I confess I started playing the game at the time but then got stuck in one of the levels and...well...It has been years since that and now I'm playing it again decided to finish it.

It all start with some kid characters in, what seems, a lost island. There are some quests to do at the island and then all turns up-side-down and the Heartless appear!

You can see that at least two of them are from FF X

The main character is Sora, that along side Donald and Goofy starts a journey throughout main Disney worlds.

This is no typical JRPG in which you attack by turn or need to wait the gauge bar to get full to atack. It's real time where you only control Sora.

You have to hit the enemies with the Keyblade and always pay attention to the menu where you chose from to get potions and restore your health and chose magic spells.

It requires some training to get it all right or you'll get hit and might die if you're not speedy enough chosing the right option form the menu.

You cannot control the other characters but you can use, for instance, potions to restore Donald and Goofy's health.

The first stop is a town called Traverse Town that serves as a connection point to the other worlds with some shops and where you learn more about the game and its mechanics.

From there we can travel to planets, representing a Disney story and world, using King Mickey's Gummi spacheship. Which you can upgrade and even re-build from sketch.

The first world I went was Alice in Wonderland. It says it's an easy level (they are rated with a star system) but it has some plataform tricks.

After that I went to Hercules' world Olympus Coliseum which has more fighting than plataforms. Here you get to 'know' Cloud from Final Fantasy VII. He's a bit on the dark side but in the end he gets over it.

The bad guys from Disney films are all together trying to make the world fall into the dark side. And some of the characters that appear and we thought were good are not.

Dark Cloud!

After 'saving' Cloud I traveled to Tarzan's world Deep Jungle where I still am.

The Vines plataforms are not difficult but need some learning. This is a more mixed level but mainly plataforms like Alice's world.

Since I play more than one game at a time and since I don't have much hours to spend playing like so many years ago I think I'm doing a pretty good job.

Since I'm still playing this game I'll be posting about my progress in the game.

I live you with a map of all the worlds/levels. The game looks huge! Even more if you want to collect all the extras, like saving the poor 101 Dalmations puppies that got scattered all over the worlds, and you have to return to worlds you already visited.

Still so much to play!

Good games.

Disclaimer

I'm starting this blog to post about the videogames I have for many consoles and my experiences playing them.

Hope you enjoy.