Explaining My Decision In More Words Than Is Really Necessary For A Post Like This One Here.

I recently (as in a month ago but it was "recently" when I began typing this all out) purchased Theatrhythyhm: Final Fantasy Curtain Call.  I can never spell that god damned word!  T-h-e-a-t-r-and then I'm lost.  Theatrhythm.  Let alone that I have a hard enough time spelling rhythm, rhyme and garuntee. . . I mean guarantee, which I didn't need spell check for that last time.

ANYWAY!

Theatrhythm: Final Fantasy: Curtain Call for the 3DS.  If you don't know the game yet, it's a rhythm game using the music from the Final Fantasy series.  I recently (see above reference to "recently") purchased this and I would like to give my long and drawn out thought process for my decision because this is the Internet and things like this were the reason for its creation.

So I had $35 of Gamestop gift cards in my possession and following Steam's Wallet Drain Sale (aka: Winter Sale) and I knew that I wanted to use this for buying a 3DS game.  I knew my choices ahead of time, and even then, the choice was not made without great thought and care (stop laughing Ma).

Bravely Default

I played the demo for this game earlier in 2014 and I immediately loved it.  The visual style reminded me a lot of Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light and the music, while not of Nobuo Uematsu's creation, was very fitting for the game and setting.  I very much enjoyed what was shown to me, being an introduction to how navigate towns, how battling and the "Brave" vs. "Default" battle commands worked.  It was everything that you wished all demos could and would do.  There was even the option of transfer over experience earned from the demo to the main game if you played one and purchased the other.  Very enticing.

The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds

This was a great looking game and I really liked the concept introduced by the trailer.  Even the title, for me, was a call back to A Link to the Past and after starting and not getting beyond the first temple in Spirit Tracks or finding the chutzpah to finish Twilight Princess, I was hoping that this would be the Zelda game that got me back into the series.

The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask

I loved the fecal matter out of this game, even more so than Ocarina of Time, and when I saw that this game was finally getting a remake on the 3DS, I was very excited along with the rest of a good portion of the Internet.  Currently, Majora's Mask has a release date of February 13th of this year, but at the time of purchasing, there was no official release date.  Plus, I have already played this game before and I still have a functioning copy for the N64.

Fantasy Life

No, not another Final Fantasy game (thank Odin SquarEnix hasn't been a douche-canoe and copyrighted either the words "Final" or Fantasy").  From what I understand, Fantasy Life is an open world RPG, which doesn't sound all that original except that it's on the 3DS and has gotten some pretty decent reviews.  It looks and sounds like a fun little game when I'm not busy escaping some prison in Tamriel or traversing some apocalyptic wasteland (take your pick on that front).

Animal Crossing: New Leaf

Now, I've never played a game in the Animal Crossing series and (most) everything that I've heard about New Leaf has been positive and that it's a shamefully addicting game.  I figured that this might be a good game to get started in that world.

Tomodachi Life

Similar to New Leaf, Tomodachi Life is a life-sim-type game where you use your Mii avatar along with other characters you create and have them interact on an island full of shops and activities.  Knowing me, this doesn't sound like something that I would normally go out and buy, but what sold me was the concert arena where you can have your characters perform.  This was one of the last options in the demo and I had to wonder if the game somehow tailored it to my own interests.  The band (and it being the only option in the demo) was a power metal band that sang about wizards and dragons.  How'd they know!?

So ultimately, as you by now already know, I went with Theatrhythm: Final Fantasy: Curtain Call.  As I told Conklederp the other night, I made my decision because I really just wanted a game that would  not require a massive amount of my time as I already have a backlog of RPGs that I am eagerly looking forward to playing.  A game that I could pick up and play anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour without fear of losing my place within a larger story.  Plus with 220+ wonderfully composed songs from a series that I have been playing off-and-on for 26 years.  There will probably be another post about Theatrhythm Final Fantasy: Curtain Call on Monday, so come back Monday. . . or don't, that's cool too.



~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian
It's Been Three Whole Weeks

Things that Kind of Went on at E3, 2013

If you've come looking for an article filled with information that you can find elsewhere, then you've come to the right place.  I'm just writing what I want about an event that I've never been to and have only read about.  And because here we cover predominantly video games, I feel somewhat obligated to bring up that little convention that just wrapped up yesterday down in SoCal.

So now, I bring to you, our wonderful reader:

I've actually read quite a bit this year before, during and after the megalopolis known as E3.  For some reason I had thought that the Electronics & Entertainment Expo was an all week affair, although I guess it only ran from Tuesday June 11th through Thursday June 13th, because the companies putting the expo on didn't want to get in the way of serious gaming time from Friday through Monday.  Maybe?  Keep in mind, during the next couple of paragraphs, that my knowledge is limited, I did not attend E3 and all I will be discussing are things that I liked that I read about.  So now you're getting second or third hand information and not information from a direct source.

That all being said, I would like to say that the thing that surprised me the most about this years E3, was that Rare and Double Helix Games are developing a new Killer Instinct game as an Xbox One exclusive.  Sigh.  Killer Instinct was the game that got me into fighting games, and when I say "fighting games," I should elaborate and say that I only fiddled with other fighting games (Street Fighter II, Tekken, Mortal Kombat) and I never mastered any of them, KI included.  The Joystiq article has the most concise review, being the trailer, then a few sparse words.  There wasn't any mention of who is going to do the music (if it's going to be Robin Beanland from Rare who did the original soundtrack along with Graeme Norgate).

The PS4 was finally (?) revealed this week as well.  Gizmodo has a pretty decent article comparing the PS4 and the Xbox One with a special guest appearance by the Wii U.  Speaking of the Wii U, the Penny-Arcade Report brought up Nintendo's lack of big show press conference-type activities that are the norm for this convention.  Basically what I came away from E3, was that I probably won't be owning any of the current next-gen consoles and I'll be sticking with my PC and 3DS for new games.  However, if I do end up buying a gaming console, it might be the Wii U as I really just want a dedicated video game console, not an all-in-one, that's what my PC is for, and I already have one.

David Wong over at Cracked.com wrote a great article about how certain powers in the video game industry view its consumers.  Not everything he brings up is from E3 this week, but enough is directly related to how the video game industry advertises and sells itself, hence my inclusion of it here.

Lastly I'm going to list a few of the games (and the system that I would be playing them on) that managed to catch my attention, which is just another way of saying that if I won't be able to play it, I don't care too much, such as Tom Clancy's The Division which comes out on the PS4 and Xbox One or Super Mario 3D World for the Wii U.

• The Evil Within from Bethesda Softworks (PC)
• The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds from Nintendo (3DS)
• Dragonage: Inquisition from Bioware (PC) 
• [Although I still haven't played the first in the series].
• Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 from Konami (PC)
• [Haven't played anything from this series either].
• Batman: Arkham Origins from Warner Bros. Games (PC)
• Not mentioned at E3 was Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate (3DS) from Armature Studios
• Scribblenauts Unmasked: A DC Comics Adventure (3DS)
• The Elder Scrolls: Online from Bethesda Softworks (PC)

That's really it.  That's all I know, maybe a bit more, but that's all I feel like I'm able to share about something that I've only read about.  So with that, happy Friday and y'all have a pleasant weekend.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

The Spark I Once Had Seems to Have Died