Tag Archives: square enix

General Commentary

The Inanities of Video Game Bosses (Created by Square, I Mean)

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Image from Flickr User: lites_in_thee_skyy
Image from Flickr User: lites_in_thee_skyy

Some time ago, I replayed “Kingdom Hearts”, a game I had gone through two times prior, and yet, for some reason, this was the first time that something struck me. Video game bosses are weird. Not just the concept (why are they even called “bosses” to begin with?), but…you know what, have you ever beaten “Kingdom Hearts”? Or really, any Square Enix game for that matter. Because, sometimes, they have the absolute strangest abominations you’ve ever seen. It almost seems to be a requirement in such games that the final boss is the most distorted and ridiculous creature they can possibly come up with.

And so, when I was battling the final boss of “Kingdom Hearts” during my third playthrough, it was only now that it hit me just how goofy the end of the game is (goofy, not Goofy). Honestly. I mean, okay, I can accept the earlier fight against Ansem, when he has that funky Heartless thing hovering behind him all throughout the entire battle (which would bother me, personally, as I don’t do well with anyone breathing down my neck, monster or not-monster alike). But, then, once you beat him, you have another fight that is so much more absurd, where Ansem and his funky minion thing have somehow merged with a…I don’t know…a psychotic cruise ship of death that is floating out in nothingness, with faces all over it (including one face with a chin that could poke your eye out…nay, to be more accurate, it could poke your entire face out). And I don’t know why I never thought that much about it before, but the last time I saw this thing…

Continue reading The Inanities of Video Game Bosses (Created by Square, I Mean) →

Console

The Duck Discusses the Wii, 360, and PS3 Generation: Part 3-Sony Still Can’t Think of Creative Names

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Image from Flickr User: alessandrofaj
Image from Flickr User: alessandrofaj

Today is the last day of my series of posts on what I like and dislike about the last generation of consoles, the Wii, the 360, and the PS3.  While I loved the PlayStation 2, I actually didn’t have any intention of getting the PS3 because Naughty Dog was still refusing to make any more “Jak and Daxter” games, the “Kingdom Hearts 3” release date was nowhere in sight, and because I could just keep up with the “Final Fantasy” games on the 360.  And then, because of a sale on used games at GameStop, I bought myself a few PS2 “Ratchet and Clank” games, causing me to really get into the series.  And that’s when I found myself with an unstoppable need to buy the PS3 and catch up on all the “R&C” games I had missed.  Nevertheless, at first, my PS3 didn’t have much to motivate me to play it aside from a few short “R&C” games, and I wondered if I may have wasted my money.  The console did become much better, however, when I added to my collection “Portal 2”, “Rayman Legends”, and the Final Mix version of “Kingdom Hearts”, and now I’m starting to really love it.  Not as much as my PS2, but it still turned out to be a pretty grand console.  And now, I present you with my pros and cons for the PS3!  (With the focus, again, on gaming, and information found on Wikipedia.) Continue reading The Duck Discusses the Wii, 360, and PS3 Generation: Part 3-Sony Still Can’t Think of Creative Names →

Console

The Duck Discusses the Wii, 360, and PS3 Generation: Part 2-360 Boxes

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Image by Flickr User: ChipperMist
Image by Flickr User: ChipperMist

Not long ago, I published a post discussing what I like and dislike about the Wii, and seeing as the next console of this particular generation that I bought was the XBox 360, it makes sense for Microsoft’s console to be the subject of the second post in this series.  It’s a funny thing, though, how I got this console in the first place, because I am more of a PlayStation fan than an XBox fan, so it would stand to reason that I would have been much more inclined to purchase a console made by Sony over one made by Microsoft.  Unfortunately, at the time, the PS3 was much too expensive, and it didn’t have any games I really cared for yet that weren’t already on the 360 (this was obviously before I became a “Ratchet and Clank” fan…).  Since the games I wanted at that time were all on the 360, plus that console would also allow me to play any new “Halo” games, this became the next console I added to my gaming family.

And when I first started playing the 360, I was immediately impressed with the graphics, which were way ahead of the Wii, and even though the first two games I played were not as good as I was expecting (“Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts” and “Sonic the Hedgehog”, the 2006 version, shudder, gag, shiver), I did have a good time playing “Halo 3” (even though it was short) and “Final Fantasy XIII” (despite its flaws), the latter of which came with my console.  (I even got this little waste of time thing on one end of the console that says “Final Fantasy XIII” on it.  Jealous?)  Plus, I was just pretty thrilled that this new XBox had “Final Fantasy” games as part of its library now, as during the last generation, only the PS2 had such an honor.  My game collection was further improved with the addition of “Halo: Reach” and “Halo 4”, which were awesome, and I even had the pleasure of expanding my game library with over 40 Sega Genesis games on “Sonic’s Ultimate Genesis Collection”.  In the end, I ended up really enjoying my 360, and I loved it way more than the original XBox.  And now, anymore of my thoughts on this console will be listed below.  (As usual, my main focus is on gaming, not the other features the 360 has to offer, and extra info was found on Wikipedia.) Continue reading The Duck Discusses the Wii, 360, and PS3 Generation: Part 2-360 Boxes →

General Commentary

Great Games I Almost Missed

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Image by Flickr User: Cinder6
Image by Flickr User: Cinder6

Sometimes, I like to think about how things would be if I made different decisions.  Like, if I had never decided to buy the PlayStation 2, my first venture outside my previously Nintendo-only domain, what games would I be playing now?  What would my collection look like?  I’m sure we all have times where there is a great game we didn’t plan on getting, but we ended up playing it because of what a friend said about it or because it caught our attention in the store during a search for a completely different game.  And when this happens, I often think about how close I came to missing out on such a good game.  And maybe we all do that, or maybe it’s just me.  Because I think too much into things sometimes.

And when I get to thinking, I realize all manner of things.  If I didn’t just happen to spot “Okami” and “Vexx” and decide to give them a try, I would have missed out on some fantastic games.  And “Portal 2”, actually, was thanks to good things Cary and Hatm0nster said about it, or I would have never bought the game.  (Thanks, guys.)  Seriously, I saw it in the stores, and all I thought was, “That game sure has a weird cover”, and that was that.  Then, I heard people talk about this game, looked it up one day, and there it was, a game I had seen before and just simply passed by.  Small world.  Or just, small video game section of the store.  I dunno.  But, it’s weird.  Also, thanks to more good reviews on blogs I’ve read, I bought “Chrono Trigger” and “Chrono Cross”.  Never heard of those games before, but now I own them, and I really look forward to playing them. Continue reading Great Games I Almost Missed →

Uncategorized

Glitches Involving a Disappearing Act, With no Magicians Responsible

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Today’s addition to my little glitch series is a common one, when things just mysteriously vanish.  Mysteriously.

Sometimes, the world falls apart around you: This happens in “Spyro” games I played on the Cube.  For me, it was quite common in “Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly” for the ground to disappear in the second world, the farm level.  So I’m walking along, and then the ground is just suddenly gone, wheat and barns and scarecrows, not to mention little, purple dragon, floating in midair.  No harm is done, but it’s rather frightening to see oblivion right there below you.  And once Spyro was riding an elevator down from Cloudy Domain in “Spyro: A Hero’s Tail”, and the world decided to disappear from below him, leaving just an expanse of yellow.  Rather worried at the apparent coming of Armageddon taking place below me, I had no choice but to continue riding the elevator down.  It eventually arrived on the ground, and everything was now black, except for Spyro, the elevator, and a distant Moneybags’ shop.  Unsure of what to do, I attempted to glide towards that shop, my single beacon of hope in a world apparently come to an end.  Here, Spyro did not meet any invisible ground.  He fell to his doom.  And I reset the game and rode that elevator nevermore. Continue reading Glitches Involving a Disappearing Act, With no Magicians Responsible →

Listmas

Merry Listmas: Things I Dislike About Games I Like

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Hello, everyone, and welcome to the duck’s first Listmas list.  I enjoy lists, whether it’s keeping track of all my games (in order from best to worst, of course) and realizing that my collection might be getting a wee bit enormous or marking things off a list and knowing that I’m getting one step closer to a goal.  And so when I found out there was an actual little holiday where I got to list stuff, I then got to thinking about what I wanted to list (as was the logical next step in that sequence of events).  And I eventually came up with the idea to list the things I don’t like about games I like.  Here I go. Continue reading Merry Listmas: Things I Dislike About Games I Like →

Commentary, News, News Byte, Reporting

News Byte: Kingdom Hearts 2.5 HD Remix to be Released Next Year

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NewsBytelogo

Kingdom Hearts 2.5 HD Remix to be Released Next Year

Kingdom Hearts news is coming down the pipeline from Square Enix,  which recently announced a new addition to the series arriving in 2014: Kingdom Hearts 2.5 HD Remix. What promise does this game hold for Kingdom Hearts fans?

Continue reading News Byte: Kingdom Hearts 2.5 HD Remix to be Released Next Year →