Badguy Turned Good No. 5

I wanted to make a Top 10 at GameFAQs but I could not think of that many, so I will go for the Top 5, and this spot is reserved for Bowser.


You are thinking "What the hell, Bowser?" And that is good. In Super Mario RPG, Bowser got pissed because his castle was overtaken by Smithy and that Giant Sword thing, so after deciding that he could not destroy Mario, he joined forces with him to take down Smithy, regain his castle and make amends.

What was so great about Bowser was that you always had him in your party for his high attack strength and high defense, with is critical in any RPG. Granted this is the only game where Bowser takes an alliance with Mario, in all other games he is an asshole who just wants to kidnap the princess.

Now starting off this Top 5 list with Bowser might make all my zero readers sceptical, but beleive me, I found four better and more worthy fellows to take those places.

Golden Sun: The Lost Age

I decided that to keep in the RPG spirit, I will occasionally feature an RPG from time to time. I begin with GS: TSA because I want to put this one picture here.

That is Catastophe, one of the most powerful summons in the game. He is my favorite becasue of 1) how badass he looks when you summon him and 2) the amount of damage he inflicts by using both Mars and Jupiter Djinni. The other two powerful summons are the ones you get after collecting all Djinni: Charon and Iris.

The story in TLA picks up immediately after the first game, when Venus Lighthouse is collapsing and the peninsula breaks off from the mainland. Whereas GS followed Isaac, Garet, Ivan and Mia, TLA follows Felix, Jenna and Sheba, who eventually meet up with the Lemurian Piers. Whereas in GS your objective was to prevent the Lighthouses from being lit, in TLA you learn in order for the world to be saved (or immediately destroyed) the lighthouses MUST be lit.

At the beginning of the game the Mercury and Venus Lighthouses have been lit, and once Felix and Company make it to the Jupiter Lighthouse they meet up with Isaac and Company, where they finally come to terms and agree on lighting the final lighthouse. They end up traveling to their worlds equivilent North Pole, light the lighthouse, save Weyard, and discover that Isaac's dad and Felix and Jenna's parents are still alive.


But Alex (above) had something else in mind, He was atop of Mt. Aleph, hoping to gain teh powers of the Golden Sun upon the lighting of all four lighthouses. But the Wise One (a rock with one eye) caused Alex (who had near limitless power after the Golden Sun rose) to fall with the mountain in the grand earthquake caused by the lighthouses.

If anybody who reads this has a Gameboy Advance, get this game. And the first one. Both are RPG greatness with the same turn-based fighting, but the Djinni system allows for a variation of magic spells, stat boosts, and summons. ...And the Golden Sun shall rise.

RPG Wishlist

I have been thinking a lot about RPG's as of late, I have even contemplated throwing in a Top 5 of some sort regarding RPG's. So what I will do is compose a quick list of games I must (MUST) add to the collection of games.

Chrono Cross - Sequel to Chrono Trigger and IGN says that the battle system in CC is the best ever. I must experience firsthand, that is why it is on the list.

Final Fantasy VIII - You knew that this list was sure to have a FF on it somewhere, and this one is it. I think it is sweet because of Squall Leonheart and gunblades. And sweet PSX graphics.
Baten Kaitos - This is for Gamecube, and it is one of the few GC RPG's. I have Tales of Symphonia (worth every penny, it also got my publsihed). A different type of battle system involving magical cards and not the typical turn based (even though there is nothing wrong with turn based fighting).

Final Fantasy Anthology - This is a two pack for the PS including FFV and FFVI, two more games I have not experienced. Looking at screens, they appear like the same as the other 16- and 32-bit games. So, the experience is all that matters not the graphics.

Final Fantasy X - Jeez, another FF. But I figure when I get a PS3 I will have to get X jsut for the hell of it. NOT X-2. No, hell no. Just X. Got it? I do not want to play as three women. Hell no.

Xenogears - I have heard so much about this game and how sweet it is (potentially being the best RPG not starting with Final and ending with Fantasy). And I think it spawned a couple sequels.

Breath of Fire - Fine I will give into the SNES classic. And the SNES game, not the GBA remake. When it comes to the RPG's I gotta go original, not remake. It is just one of those things.

I know this is a lot, but that is not even half of the real list. It also is in the correct arrangement of what I wanna get first and last. But now I am still of Chrono Trigger, and afterward is FFIV. So I leave my loyal imaginary fans with that.

Revolution Update

I just read the transcript to the speech that Regie Fils-Aime made yesterday at IGN, and I just wanted to skip to what he had to say about the Revolution. You can read that part of his speech here. He made many interesting points that pretty much gave me comfort in the Revolution's future.

Nintendo is not in this console race right now because they can not afford it and they wish not to rush into development. And from the speech, Nintendo has made agreements with some third-party developers already, meaning they have gotten past that nervous feeling of wanting to be a part of the Revolution (nervous of losing money that is).

But the Revolution is looking more and more promising each day, still upholding their promise to download NES and SNES games, along with the backward compatibility for playing Gamecube games.

Nintendo also commented on the controller, the most talked about piece of the Revolution these past months. They hope to expand the possibilities of the remote's functions, such as the additional joystick, and the base controller, so "you can have it both ways. Familiar or revolutionary. One hand or two. Today's games or tomorrow's." That was my favorite part of the speech.

But one question still remains. Playstation 3 or Nintendo Revolution? I doubt I will ever get an Xbox 360 for the sake of me not really wanting it. The PS3 is also guaranteeing backward compatibility, which allows me to hang onto such gems as FFVII and FF Chronicles, and allows me to get the PS2 games I missed out on such as MGS2 and 3. The Xbox 360 is trying to be almost "too sweet" by making most games high definition, and not promising that all Xbox games will be backward compatible. The only Xbox game I care about is (not Halo,) Knights of the Old Republic. I might just get that for PC when I get my college computer.

So take care folks, and may the Force be with you. Always.

Metroid Prime

I have not been as frequent as I should be updating this blog. I am sorry to no one because zero people read this anyway. But lately I have been playing Metroid Prime, the first one, thanks to Joe. I have Echoes, but I have never really enjoyed the first one.


The first is way better than the second. Mainly because there are not limitations to the beams. In Echoes, you kept needing to collect Light and Dark ammo, whereas in MP1 the Wave, Ice, and Plasma beams are not hindered by limitations. I also like how the game moves a lot more smoothly. Once you gain a power up, you promptly figure out where it is you must go next, and then you find your next power up.

It seems like the game is just handing you all these power ups! I have had the game no longer than three weeks and I already have the Phazon Suit, in Echoes I had been playing over a month ebfore I found the damn Dark Visor. Or the Annihilator. The Light Suit took so long to get too, but that was sweet. Not as sweet as the Phazon Suit.

Maybe because I experienced Echoes first, MP1 just seems that much easier, because I have the jist of things. But MP1 being a huge step forward for the Metroid series (transition from 2D to 3D) I can imagine being equally difficult having never played Echoes.

I am pleased that once the game is ebaten, the Hard mode is unlocked, because that is a challenge that would suit my gaming skills and needs.

Revenge of the Sith

Since Tuesday November 1, 2005, I have watched Star Wars Episode III - Revenge of the Sith twice on DVD. Better everytime. I have also watched the deleted scenes with the introductions by George Lucas, The documentary "Within a Minute," the music video A Hero Falls with the song Battle of the Heroes, most of the web documentaries, the trailors, the TV spots, and that is about it I think. I am ashamed of myself. But I also learned where to find the dancing Yoda secret thing. Boy am I excited for that.

YOU WERE THE CHOSEN ONE!