Alright, this happened a couple of hours ago, so while the experience is still fresh in my mind(relatively)let's walk-through a particular event(similar to a scripted battle in an RPG where you can't win, the only option is to lose...well that's the overall feeling anyway)during my shift. I work at the illustrious Barnes & Noble Cafe(I know, It's awesome, you should be jealous)and ever since the two free-standing Starbucks establishments closed down over Christmas we've been busier than usual. Naturally at certain points of the day we have rushes of customers wanting to get something for lunch, or before they go into work at the mall, etc.
During one of our minor rushes we had a lady walk up and order a hot Grande Chai Latte(medium sized, spicy vanilla flavored tea concentrate, with steamed milk), I ring her up and she patiently waits for her drink at the end of the counter. Meanwhile, my boss is making that customer's drink, queuing up the next drink in her head, and talking to the head manager of the store about a certain employee(whom I never got to meet because she quit after a week). Now you normally wouldn't put a shot of espresso in a Chai Latte(because It's not in the recipe but you may alter the drink to your liking, Chai Latte + espresso = Dirty Chai...work terminology, sorry)but with 3 things going on at once you're bound to have a lapse in concentration every once in a while and that's fine because we're all human, we make mistakes and that is perfectly acceptable. The Chai Latte is completed, called out(accidently with a shot of espresso in it, but not mentioned), the lady picks up her drink and is on her way without incident and the day goes on.
The rush continues and I notice the "Chai" customer walk back up, and she looks upset. She looks around, skips the line and walks right up to the counter where the drinks are being placed and utters: "This is disgusting! I ordered a Chai Latte, a drink that isn't suppose to have coffee in it!" Mind you, she's just mouthing off(being self-righteous like all of our wonderful and memorable pretentious customers are)to my boss(very, VERY bad move, you just DON'T DO THAT). All streams of time at that point just froze, everything stopped and I felt my heart skip a beat or two, you could feel an immense pressure immanating from one specific focal point...the boss. It took all of my strength to remain calm and seemingly unaffected by this great force, but my gut told me to just get out of there, kind of like this:
My boss is a fair person, and she tried to deal with this person in the best manner that she could, calmly asking if we could remake that drink for her. The response was...rude, if I could describe it: "...I want a refund! You should be paying attention and not having a chit-chat session with your friend over there!" Ahhh, work...customers are just so damn chipper you know? Annoyed, and obviously angry, my boss refunds the drink and the day continues on in awkward silence.
Let me say that I haven't tasted fear like this in a good long while, from disbelief, to a false calm, panic, then the need to just run and get out of there while riding out the adrenaline rush. I have the perfect way to completely sum up and illustrate my story on this one:
Enjoy the whole thing if you'd like but to see my point just skip ahead to about 43 seconds and watch from there to the end. The best stories to this day, have come out of that cafe, sometimes work can be a pain but moments like this will be remembered till the end of days.
This is going to be an exciting time for me, It's been quite a long time since I've taken a trek into the Halo series(probably 3 or 4 months ago since I last played Halo 3). But this game is something to look forward to.
Taking place between the events of Halo 2 and Halo 3, the Master Chief and all the other Spartans will be taking a back seat, as you the "Rookie" who has just been placed in an ODST(Orbital Drop Shock Trooper)squadron are now the primary focus of this operation. During a routine jump, something goes horribly wrong over New Mombasa and your squad's pods are sent off course from each other. Upon regaining consciousness from the impact, you set out to find clues as to where members of your squadron have been, and if they are still alive while neutralizing the Covenant.
Fire-Fight, a new multiplayer mode in ODST has you and a team of friends taking down wave after wave of randomly generated Covenant forces a la Gears of War's Horde Mode. During specific points in between waves, special objectives are unlocked in order to increase the difficulty of gameplay. As an added bonus, if you pre-order this game at your local game retail outlet(Gamestop, EB), you'll be able to play as Sarge during this mode as well.
Halo ODST drops in a little over 2 weeks, September 22nd. If you're a Halo fan who wants an expansion on the story, or just enjoy FPS, then this game might be worth your time. See you on Xbox Live, lets bring the Covenant down!
Kingdom Hearts is a joint venture between Square Enix and Disney, that merges the realms of Disney and Final Fantasy into one. With an original cast of characters supported by many of the popular ones from both franchises. Kingdom Hearts aims to put a new "what if" twist on if both realms co-existed alongside each other.
The game-play is an action-RPG format, similar to Devil May Cry and Dynasty Warriors. Players gain experience and level up, gaining new abilities, spells and commands while battling the Heartless in real time. For Kingdom Hearts the art style is a derivitive of Final Fantasy with a Disney influence on the new cast of characters. The main stage is played out in the realms of Disney with specilized areas fleshed out like something out of Final Fantasy.
The story is long, but has many unexpected twists and turns. But it is very satisfying for those that enjoy both of what each franchise has to offer. With more than 30+ hours of game-play, a musical score by Yoko Shimomura(whom had worked on other Square Enix titles, namely Super Mario RPG: Legend of The Seven Stars), with the main theme "Simple and Clean(US)" or "Hikari(Japanese)" sung by Utada Hikaru. Kingdom Hearts sought out to do what many other games have tried in the past and failed for the most part, an overwhelmingly successful fusion of 2 worlds that would seem unlikely(and please, you don't need to mention to me: Battletoads & Double Dragon, nor any Capcom cross-over fighter series).
//////SPOLIER ALERT!: May I remind you that if you plan to play any of the aformentioned titles, or you have not yet completed those specific titles(namely Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts II)that you STOP yourself right here and DO NOT CONTINUE TO READ the following paragraphs. My overall goal is to provide a summarized retrospective about the first 2 titles, and then ultimately end with Birth By Sleep and 358/2 Days.//////
During the first Kingdom Hearts, you ventured out as Sora with Donald and Goofy at your side. One day while on Destiny Island chaos ensues in the form of an attack by beings known as the Heartless. Beings who were once like you or I, but gave into complete darkness and lost their heart in the process. They end up abducting Kairi, and Riku vanishes. Sora vows to find and rescue them, so that things may return to how they were, his resolve during the invasion called forth the Keyblade into his possession, making him a Keyblade Master. During that exact moment King Mickey went missing from Disney Castle, Donald and Goofy were charged with the duty of finding and protecting the King. The trio(Sora, Donald and Goofy)all meet for the first time in Traverse Town, a place where the realms of Disney and Final Fantasy converge into one.
As Sora you travel from world to world, primarily within the Disney realm via the Gummi Ship to quell the chaos and "lock" the doors which allow the Heartless into that particular realm. You meet many famous Disney characters along the way: Aladdin, Genie, Tarzan, Alice, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Belle, The Beast, Minnie, Mickey, Daisy to name a few, with many more throughout your journey. As well as many Final Fantasy characters too: Tidus, Wakka, Aerith, Yuffie, Cloud, Squall, Sephiroth, and Moogles!
Sora eventually learns the Kairi is one of the "Seven Princesses of Pure Heart," It's said that when all of them are gathered the doors to "Kingdom Hearts" will reveal themselves and be opened. Kairi is found unconscious and is revealed to have lost her heart, but has yet to be a heartless. It seems that during the struggle at Destiny Islands, before it was destroyed, in order to save Kairi her heart left her body, and found It's way to Sora and merged with his. Sora then gives up "their" heart to Kairi, ultimately reviving her and turning him into a Heartless, however this also ends up revealing Kingdom Hearts to the Heartless. Moved by Sora's noble choice, Kairi finds his Heartless, and separates "their" heart and gives Sora's back to him, restoring his human form.
Sora then goes off into the world of darkness to fight Ansem, the supposed being behind the chaotic events of the Heartless. Upon his defeat the world of darkness begins to crumble, and Sora desparately tries to shut It's door. All hope seems lost until Riku and King Mickey show up to offer their help by pulling on the door on the other side, sacrificing themselves along with any chance of returning to this world. With the door shut and Heartless supposedly gone from this realm, Sora stands unsure of himself and his choices. As the world of darkness begins to pull away from his realm, Sora reveals to Kairi that he believes the Riku and King Mickey are alive somewhere and that he vows to resuce them, so that they can all be together again. His final words are that of a promise to come back to her one day as the world of darkness fades from view, and Kairi is left back on Destiny Island alone with a sense of hope.
Another Side, Another Story
Deep Dive
The 2 secret endings(from the US and Japanese releases respectively)if you satisfied certain conditions within the game. A hidden reveal which started out as just a special movie for players of the game who went beyond the normal requirements to achieve something more. But eventually grew to become the basis for Kingdom Hearts II and the games the proceeded after it, which will be covered in the upcoming part 2 of this retrospective.
Lets take a trip back in time if you will, back to the early days of my generation of video games. Remember when NES and SNES games were $60-$70 a game? Yeah, they were that expensive, hard to believe right? As a kid that was a lot of money...that you didn't have. You did all of these chores and behaved yourself so that maybe over the summer you'd end up saving enough money to buy it, or have your parents pick it up for you. Remember when you played that game for months on end? You played it with friends, family or even alone just for fun. Then you would set the game down for a little while, come back to it later and still have that same sense of joy and excitement years later. Those were the days...
So why is it now, that most(and I use that term loosely)video games of today's generation seem "easy"? As mentioned in a way above, back then you could buy a game, play it for quite a while, set it down and then come back and have fun all over again as if you've never played it before. The replay value on games and the difficulty has gone near completely downhill. Today you can purchase a game for $40-60(depending on the system, basing this on a new game price)and be done with it in a matter of hours or days, and then just be done with it all, never to pick it up again.
The question remains, why? The fact that the quality of rendering graphics have definitely gone way up in scale, but as a trade off the game-play time is reduced to the point of where replay-ability is near non-existent. Today games are more about just earning some stupid number(achievements/trophies...which I suppose can be quite rewarding at times), but at the same time is kind of stupid. While it does make someone work towards a goal, the overall course of action eventually becomes all about just getting every "achievement/trophy," and it usually amounts to not having fun, because this is something that you absolutely need to have in order to validate yourself as a gamer. When does working hard to obtain something you don't care about ever sound fun? Now I understand that some gamers are "Completists" which is fine, to each their own. You don't need a panel with squares and witty text to be as such, in fact It's robotic and boring.
The reason you pick up and play a game in the first place is because you think it may be interesting/and or fun. Everything else can fall into place as you go along, it should be about the adventure and the experience that should count in the end. Imagine back to a time where your group of friends all played one game, separately of course but all at the same time. Not everyone plays in the exact same style, you'd have all of these different stories and experiences, all from the same game. The goal would be the same, but that path leading up to it would be different for each and everyone of you. Usually that would be how you end up finding all of these random secrets, and it would only drive you to further explore the game again in another play-through. It made you work hard on your own merit, and gave you a sense of great fulfillment when you obtained it.
So what happened to that magic? Does it still exist? Absolutely, however very faintly the light still burns. Video Games should be about enjoyment, if they're fun then nothing else will matter. I want to remember a character because a part of them I can see reflects on myself, I want to remember a story because It's the kind of adventure that I would want to go on, or have been though. I want to remember this game because I couldn't see myself wanting to forget this moment, feeling the way that I do right now...ever.
I guess introductions are at hand right? Well...hello, and welcome to what I hope will be a series entries about my life as a gamer, and my opinions about where the industry is heading. Now let's get one thing straight right off the bat, don't lump me in with the "Casual" or "Hardcore" types(because there are types now *rolls eyes,*remember when being someone who plays video games wasn't cool and/or a fad?), for I am neither, I'm just a gamer, I enjoy a bit of everything, if it looks fun then I'll probably play it.
Namae wa?(Name):Devin Age: 23 years _____(old/young...or whatever you decide) Nationality:Japanese(yay, stereotyping! ^_^) First Introduction Into Video Games: my 5th or 6th birthday, when my grandparents got a Nintendo Entertainment System for me Favorite Video Game of All Time:Final Fantasy VII(now before you judge me on this one, let me say that I thoroughly enjoyed the story and elements that made up the world of FFVII before it became a fad to enjoy those games) Current Favorite Titles: /Dissidia Final Fantasy(PSP) /Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of The Lions(PSP) /Rock Band(360) Favorite Genres: RPG, Action-Adventure, Puzzle, Fighting
Current Systems Owned: /Xbox 360(360) <=====Current Favorite /Nintendo Wii(Wii) /Gamecube /Playstation 2(PS2) /Nintendo DS Lite(DS) /Playstation Portable(PSP) <=====Current Favorite
Past Systems Owned: /Xbox /Playstation(PS1) <=====Past Favorite /Nintendo 64 <=====Past Favorite /Sega Genesis /Super Nintendo(SNES) <=====Past Favorite /Nintendo Entertainment System(NES) /Nintendo DS(DS) /Gameboy Advance(GBA) /Gameboy Color
Now, I'd say that I take playing video games more seriously than the average person(I took 2 days off from work in order to obtain/play a game on launch day...you can make fun of me now, I know, I know...). However, not so much that it runs my life, but gaming is a big part of it. To me playing video games is like the equivalent of reading an exciting novel or watching a great movie, the fulfillment and entertainment that I get from it I can't really describe, I can say that It's only something that someone in the same situation as myself will be able to experience. I devote about 3-4 hours a day at minimum to video gaming(sounds like a lot, but trust me there are people who literally spend their lives on a game...seriously), usually not all in one sitting, it depends on the game.
Can someone love video games and not become a troll? Absolutely. Can these "individuals" become respectable members of society? Sure, why not? We're constantly growing, a community who started as outcasts and has managed to find acceptance in an ordinary world. We're your neighbor, a retail employer, the coffee shop guy, an officer of the law, your mailman...to be quite frank, we're everywhere and everyone, and we're here to stay.
