[Gironika]

Q: If [unnamed company] isn't too busy with making Metacritic-based Business-decisions and TRON-swag, they tend to develop seven [generic RPG-name]-titles at the same time, cancel three, bring only two of them over and fuck up at least one out of two releases with weird decisions like putting a three where a six would belong. They are also buying a new company every twenty seconds and expect to sell twice the amount of the installed hardware basis for each game they release. And just some days ago, the Boss™ decided to hand over duties asap and change professions - Seppukuru*-manager is very likely his next job.

What am I talking 'bout?

You might have guessed it, it is time for

again.


"Wait", I hear you sayin', "didn't we already 'ave us un three some years ago?"
Indeed, right you are, but since this the sixth SQEX-week and a US-version of it, it's basically a no-brainer to slap a three there instead of a six and be as professional about it as only a Microsoft employee can be:
~~DEAL WITH IT~~



Flashback:
Last year

• we talked about Eidos and Taito,
  
• FF12 was emulated,
  
• we played some Chrono-games,
  
• had some excellent in-depth coverage about the end of the world in FF14
  
• and Youpi rocked us SBros with one of the most entertaining let's plays that isn't a let's play.
  

So, what's up this year?
Well,

• I'm going to take a look at barking, working and sleeping dogs
  
• jacking my mind in Mindjack™
  
• present an underground social network service that 99% have never heard of
  
• might write something about FFX before the PS3 HD-rerererererereleases are out
  
• will wait for the postman to deliver two (SQEX-)games I've bought recently
  
• will boot a reboot to have some booty boo… - some Raidin' Action.
  
• will devise and present some strategies how SQEX can be rescued from oblivion
  
• and I'll kick off a social media phenomenon that will take the world by storm. Heard it here first!
  

Alas, feel free to hop in and come along for a roller-coaster ride that's as bad as The Bouncer or Driving Emotion Type-S! Grab a cam, take some pixx, twatter around the world in materiabooks; be it Eidos, Taito, Enix or SQUARE, play to your hearts content.

And always keep in mind that

[thestage]

whoa I remember that Mindjack game. but I guess I thought it got cancelled? like every other square game?

was Final Fantasy X Bioshock Infinite before Bioshock Infinite was Bioshock Infinite? it maybe was! as FFX marked more or less then end of the Golden Age of JRPG mainstream success and critical focus, will Bioshock Infinite do the same for the FPS? probably not! but maybe in smaller, more nuanced ways. maybe I will think about this.

I am interested in the legacy of Xenogears, though I'm not sure why. it forms a kind of trilogy with FFVIII and Chrono Cross--the height of square hubris and decadence, of their audiovisual prowess and their cult like authority over a given form, the what-have-we-here steps after the monstrous lurch of FFVII--but something sets it apart, I think. maybe I will think about this.

[Ymer]

Someone give me a Squeenix game, ANY game, I can play on my PSP and I shall make it my task.

[dementia]

[Gideon Zhi]

Hmm. I should use this as an excuse to dig through my sqex backlock and see what I can find. Maybe I'll finally go through FF2. It's the one main-numbered non-online Final Fantasy I haven't finished in some form or other. A good one to have not finished admittedly, but still.
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Aeon Genesis ~ Ambassador Thorman great man! I do anything he say!

[BotageL]

I have a copy of STAR OCEAN: THE LAST HOPE on my desk, which I got at a Gamestop for like $9.

Let's rock.
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http://www.mdgeist.com/

[remote]

So much I want to play right now, but I may have to take a detour for a little SaGa Frontier and/or Minstrel Song. FFXII emulated in 1080p widescreen is tempting.

Chrono Cross will happen later this summer.

Maybe I'll stop and actually finish Nier, since I have to admit I never did. I have no idea why. I was pretty into it. It's harder for me to sit on the couch with a console away from my PC, I guess, but man, come on. I know Nier deserves the time.

The timing of this is fitting, actually, since I just revisited the sb Square Enix podcast. Where folks talked about Kingdom Hearts for way too long and never once mentioned Xenogears.
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letterboxd | last.fm | steam

[mauve]

I've been slowly grinding through a Final Fantasy Tactics run for the first time in a couple years, after watching a hilarious solo run on Nico. (4:24)

Still love this game to bits, endless flaws and all.
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twit

[Ronnoc]

I've been playing Drakenguard lately, and then I'm going to replay Neir. Neither will be worked on this week, but too bad.

[Winona Ghost Ryder]

Have you guys played Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days? A really underappreciated gem, that one. Good on Square-Enix.

[Winona Ghost Ryder]

I also have to give Square credit for managing to concentrate my dark libidinous id and press it for mass release with a recent AAA title.

I'm of course referring to Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime.

[rye]

Let's make this the week I finish Nier, then! And check out that FFTactics:WoL rebalance hack.
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[Rud31]

Guess I have to get my PSP back from my friend so that I can play Type-Zero.
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My Hawt Blog Vita Games

THERE ARE DEFINITELY WORSE VIDEO GAME PODCASTS

[special blend]

play 4 heroes of light
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http://portuguesefoodbank.blogspot.ca/
3DS FRIEND CODE 3754-7276-2693

[Mr.Stevenson]

Speaking of DS games, Chocobo Tales, people! I don't really play many card based games but CT is interesting from what I remember.

[Gironika]

[misadventurous]

FF5 is pretty fun if you like Job Systems. play the GBA version so you can have it on the go + with a better script.

i was playing FF6 a week or so ago. good game!! i really like how pacey it is, at least in the first half (i've never gotten to the World of Ruin, i must confess).

i intend to finish it eventually, though at the moment i'm picking at my Dragon Quest 8 playthrough from like, last year.
you know, if Squeenix re-released DQ8 with non-random encounters and changed nothing else, it would probably be the best RPG for the PS2.

[mauve]

FF5 is pretty much the best of the series I think. Lots of flexibility and room for actually interesting and varied challenge play, with the story being light enough that it doesn't get in the way while still being entertaining.

Xenogears is one of those games that I liked when it came out but probably couldn't get through it now. I actually still have the game itself around here somewhere, maybe I should suffer through it again for old time's sake...
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twit

[skelethulu]

Going to watch this Rad Racer longplay while playing DQV on my DS


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[Gironika]

That is a pretty Rad Racer, if I may say so.




Soo~oo, if someone can tell me where I can upload a PSD-file, you can also make pretty stuff during this week.
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[BenoitRen]

Uhh, on your free web space allotted by your ISP?
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Get Xenoblade Chronicles!

[Mr.Stevenson]

[Rud31]

[Ymer]

[rye]

[Gironika]

have no webspace from my isp, forgot about sharehosters. Too easy! Will update tonight, suddenly got a bit busy, the first few days …
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[Gironika]

Sooo, have some two hours to spend? Why not watch some people talking about FF6/14 … and talking they do a lot. I skipped, tbh, and … uh, see for yourself!



In other news, round-up of the last few SQEX-W-days:

• talked with a colleague at work about some FFs and his experience with XII. Interestingly, he said that XII "feels" like an FF and reminded him of some previous FFs (interestingly though, he didn't like 9 and 8) … will be interesting to follow up on how he likes XII, since he's currently only two hours in.
  
• I will (maybe) get FF3 (DS) next week from said colleague. That'd be one off my list, hm!
  
• I listened to the Code Age Commanders soundtrack and wondered (once again) what-could-have-been and why, in the age of digital re-releases, it still-hasn't-been. They did shop around subbed cutscenes of that back in … 2005? already. Still, it probably wouldn't sell as a digital dl-only title. One of the few games that I wanted to play but pretty much never will due to language barrier. The soundtrack, however, is wonderful. Tanioka at her best!
  
• read a bit about the FFX HD-re-release and listened to some of the bgm-tracks … and I started to wonder about this game. What is it that makes me come back to it every so often? Mind you, I haven't played it for four years (or so?) but somehow it never fades away … in comparison to games I really liked or had a great time with, X takes up more space than it should … and last time I played it, I got killed brutallllllly on a SQEX-week-themed run. Maybe will follow up with a post!
  
• I tried to mingle with someone (re: TWEWY) via WiFi, but didn't even encounter an alien, jeez …
  
• took a trip around faux Hong Kong in Sleeping Dogs, took some pictures and thought about a number of things (re: upcoming GTA5-release ←→ SDogs). Will post soon!
  
• I realized that I promised to do some writeup-stuff for Chrono Cross, but seem not to followed through. Of course, I had to listen to the soundtrack as well, and things got a bit sentimental, me questioning things and thinking about CC again … will follow up with a post, this time for real. Yapp.
  
• I wondered whether SQEX will have the balls to go as crazy as they did back in their PSX-heyday again. Thought about this for a while, but with the recent shakeup of management/announcements a la "will investigate each business division" it slowly began to dawn on me that the recent fiscal report pretty much spells trouble for Drakengard III and other niche titles, and pretty much all the odd stuff that made SQEX the company it is today. Yes, we'll get Brave Default Fairies, but something like Drakengard? Nier? Code Age? The FF7(AC)-PS2-game featuring Vincent? I can't even muster up enough fandom to somehow see light at the end of the tunnel. Four valiant youths are all emo w/out crystals showering them with light, indeed …
  
• kinda weird that Enix survived the merger (see sqex-wiki-page for info). It'd be interesting to see where the core-staff of their hayday went …
  
• And who'd have imagined that things would turn out like they did … almost ten years later (remember that SQEX was created on april 1st 2003?)
  
• and last but not least, didn't get two friends of mine to play EINHANDER yesterday, such a shame ~~~~ still, we had a good talk about the FF-movie and The Bouncer™.
  

Will have a workshop tomorrow and won't be back till friday, so I wish you a happy SQEX-W6 finish bevor the after-show-party commences from friday onwards.
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[misadventurous]

i think i could only play FF3 on an emulator. good game but the lack of savepoints is a real buzzkill. this is particularly true of the ridiculous final dungeon, which is a giant tower full of tough bosses, surrounded by ANOTHER dungeon which is a giant maze (which is also the entrance to a THIRD dungeon where you can unlock the super-secret bonus classes). i quit the game and never picked it up again after dying to the final boss and having to redo the whole thing... a few times...

[mauve]

you can save inbetween the outer and inner dungeons.

though yeah it's still nuts and probably the most grueling end of any FF.

(and i did it, badge of worthless pride.)
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twit

[end of the world]

_

[Toptube]

I was pretty excited to finally hear (from Tetsuya Nomura) confirmation that Final Fantasy Versus XIII is not at all canceled and will surface soon, for some sort of update.

[Takashi]

[Renfrew]

My experiences exactly:

[special blend]

modern squeenix is what gave us what i would call the first legitimately attractive videogame character with lightning so hat's off to them

seriously, girl is fine
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3DS FRIEND CODE 3754-7276-2693

[diplo]

FF13's cast is one of the most sexless casts I have ever seen in a videogame and helps to further the hypothesis that no one in the game is actually a human being

[Gironika]

Thanks, that is some awesome SQEX-trivia there.
I spent some time upscaling (and searching) for traces of that awesome tile-job, but they did an ace job there … I want to believe that's the kind of dedication that made square become as big as they were back in 2000...
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[Gironika]

just dropping by to update that I have not forgotten what I wanted to talk about, but goddamn is Sleeping Dogs fun. And it's not even that good!
I just cannot put my finger on why I am enjoying this as much as I do, but it kinda has a vibe that can only be compared to "Vice City" back in 200…3? (end of 2002, 10+ years ago … woah!).

I mean, just look at that (dork a.k.a me):

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