| DARQUE CITY anime and gaming culture. | |||||||||||||||||
| THE FIRST REVEIW OF THE FINAL FANTASY 8 DEMO. |
After the spectacular success of Final Fantasy VII in North America that few predicted (well, except for us die-hard RPG gamers, right?), Square hasn't slept for a moment. Soon after FFVII rolled out onto store shelves, Square began work on the next installment of the Final Fantasy series. Final Fantasy VIII, being produced for the Playstation, takes the basic format and engine of FFVII and improves upon it a hundred times over. The characters in the game are far more realistic looking, partially due to fully textured graphics (as opposed to Gouraurd-shading on the players), and also because of the realistic human appearance; no more wide-eyed, anime-inspired styles. As well, characters will appear behind the leader in the latest Final Fantasy on the overworld maps, departing from the join-into-one tradition of previous games. Additionally, the character models used in overhead, exploring modes will be identical to the detailed models used in battles. What does this mean? Remember how in Final Fantasy VII, Cloud was far more detailed and realistic looking in a battle than he was when you were wandering around, exploring? It'll be similar to exploring with the battle-model of Cloud. The characters also merge much more effectively and cleanly with the pre-rendered backgrounds in the game, creating a much more realistic and dynamic feel. The graphical world in the game far excels the already amazing-looking backdrops in FFVII, and other features of the game seem to take up the full extent of the Playstation's abilities. Battles, particularly, are awesome, even at the current production stage. Dynamic lighting effects during fights seem to shrink, grow, and morph fluidly before your eyes, instead of flashes of light previously seen. One great example of this is the summoning of Leviathan, a classic monster of the Final Fantasy series, who flies in from space, morphs into a large, writhing blue snake-dragon, and crashes multiple, devastating waves upon your foes. This isn't the only enhancement to the battle system of the game, however. Known by a term called "Guardian Force", by summoning Leviatan (as mentioned above), a summoned monster actually gains experience. The more you summon a monster, the more experience it gains, and presumably, the more powerful it becomes. In addition to summoning monsters, a new menu option of "Draw" is reported to be included, which presents a submenu of "Use" or "Stock". Selecting Use allows a character to take an enemy's magic and focus it back towards your opponent, while choosing Stock allows the player to store the monster's magic temporarily, to be used later. Magic which is drawn will be limited to one use, before disappearing. Yet another change to the battle system is the layout on-screen. Screen display area has been dramatically increased by eliminating the large control and information window at the bottom of the screen, seen in previous Final Fantasy's. Instead, player life and speed gauges are displayed simply as text overtop of the battle screen, with no blue background, and control menus pop up only when it is a character's turn to fight. This gives the game more room to display the awesome visuals in battles, and really changes the feeling of the game. Returning to work on the music is Nobuo Uematsu, who has composed the music for all previous Final Fantasy's. Hironobu Sakaguchi is also returning to produce, and Tetsuya Nomura is again creating the character designs for the latest release. In fact, Nomura has revealed some basic information on two of FFVIII's main characters, Squall Leonhart and Laguna Loire, and some basic plot information was released at Square Co. of Japan's annual shareholder meeting. Squall Leonhart is described as an expressionless, distant 17-year-old teenager. Supposedly, these character traits translate into a carelessness for himself and others, leading many to speculate on the possible parallels between Squall and Final Fantasy VII's main character, Cloud. Squall is also known to fight with an original, cool-looking "gunblade". A mix of a sword and a gun, the gunblade will increase the strength of an attack if the R1 button is hit at a certain time. The timing for this is reported to use a gauge onscreen. As a contrast, Laguna Loire has been painted as a friendly and outgoing 27-year-old, who has earned the respect of those around him. Originally a soldier, Laguna changed professions and became a journalist. Laguna has a generous, but righteous streak, and is not afraid to stand up and fight for what he believes in. Laguna's confirmation as a male character ends all heated debates about his gender, which arose after the initial release of his feminine name. Squall attends a military school known as "Garden". The school is for children as young as six, up to young adults of 19. If a student doesn't pass an exam in their later years, however, they are expelled from the school. One skill that students learn at the school, in addition to combat skills, is magic. Magic is a hard skill to master in the world of FFVIII, and therefore only graduates of Garden are skilled enough to use it. The countries in the world of FFVIII decided in the past that the graduates of Garden would join a group unaffiliated with the individual countries. Once in this private group, a graduate is obligated to join a foreign government or army, with different level of rankings, depending on whether negotiations had been successfully established between Garden and the foreign country's army. Assignments are made regardless of a graduate's personal wishes. The highest achieving students of Garden are eligible to join an elite forces group known as "SeeD". Squall is rumored to be an extremely apt student at Garden, and attempts to join SeeD. This again draws many parallels with Cloud, and the First Class ranking he "had" in SOLDIER from Final Fantasy VII. A main character being involved with the military, however, isn't new to the Final Fantasy series. Final Fantasy IV involved Cecil, a captain of a airship fleet, and Final Fantasy VI began with Terra, who was used by an evil empire as a soldier. At the E3 tradeshow in Atlanta this year, we noticed during the promotional video for the game that there was a blue-caped female character named "Lenore" or "Rinoa" (it's hard to tell at this point what their English-translated names will be), as well as a mohawked male named "Zell" or "Zeru". Although no information on these characters has been released yet, Zell is clearly visible in many screenshots of the game, particularly battle scenes. Also, curiously, Laguna was nowhere to be seen in the impressive movie. Many have speculated that Squall and Laguna exist on two different worlds. RPGamer suspects that "different worlds" is a metaphor, describing the radical differences in the two main characters' personalities. We aren't sure, however, but we'll certainly keep you up to date as we find out more! On June 21, 1998, soon after E3, Square Co. of Japan held its annual shareholders meeting. Most of the details RPGamer learned from the meeting have been reported above, but other interesting tidbits were also discovered. Chocobos are expected to return in FFVIII, but the yellow creatures will be presented with a more realistic look. How a two-legged, yellow horse-bird can be presented more realistically, however, as well as if the same change applies for moogles, is unknown to RPGamer at this time. Additionally, we found out that Biggs and Wedge are confirmed to appear in FFVIII, in cameo appearances. John Riccitello of Square Electronic Arts announced at E3 that FFVIII will be released in North America sometime in the fall or winter of 1999. This follows after a release in Japan sometime in late 1998 / early 1999. The theme of the game has been officially confirmed as "love". The game also promises to be much more "universal" than previous games, making the game more easily understandable for Western gamers. Look for a demo of FFVIII to be released with Brave Fencer Musashi in Japan in July, as well as an English-translated demo of FFVIII included with the American release of Brave Fencer later this year. Final Fantasy VIII seems like a game that no gamer will be able to sleep without -- and probably even with. | ||||||||||||||||
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Attention: keep in mind that SF0 takes place between SF1 and SF2. Regarding Ryu, Ken, Gouken, Gouki/Akuma and Goutetsu. This is clear only if you pay attention... All of this takes place before SF1. Goutetsu has teached three killing technics to his two students, Gouken and Gouki (Akuma), who are brothers. These technics are the ShouRyuKen (Dragon Punch), the HadouKen (Fireball) and the TatsuMakiSenpuuKyaku (Wirlwind Kick). Being a "good man", Gouken removes the "intent to kill" from the technics and teaches them to Ryu and Ken. But Gouki is more evil. He perfects his art of killing, and to make his strength ultimate, tests it in a fight with his master (Goutetsu). He wins. His only quest is now to find oponents worth to kill. It is possible that he also killed his brother (Gouken), but we're not certain for now. Regarding Ryu and Sagat. SF1: Having finished his training with Gouken, Ryu tests his strength in a fight with Sagat, a great Thai fighter. He defeats him severely, opening a huge scar on his chest with a devastating ShouRyuKen. SF0: Since then, Sagat seeks revenge. His scar reminds him every day of the boy who defeated him, and feeds his hate, to a point rarely seen before... SF2: Again, Sagat seeks revenge, but in the meantime he has joined the Shadoloo, Vega/M.Bison's criminal organisation. Regarding Ken and Gouki/Akuma. ATTENTION, SPOILERS FOR SF0'S ENDINGS!! It seems in SF0 that Ken has been much more affected than ryu by his master's death. The only really important thing for Ryu seems to be the true way of the warior. But Ken is much more emotive. He lets his rage flow when he fights. After SF0: At the end of SF0, Ken meets Eliza. She asks him why he fights with so much energy, and he tells her he won't stop before he gets one man. The begining of a love story... ^-^ SF2: After defeating the boss (makes more sense if it is Gouki from SSF2X), he meets back Eliza, and marries her. Could it be the end of Ken in the SF series ? Note: The story with Ken wanting Gouki for killing Gouken is only speculation since it is not very clearly explained. Regarding Chun Li and Vega/M.Bison. ATTENTION, SPOILERS FOR SF0'S ENDINGS!! After SF1: For some reason, Vega kills Gen (from SF1), who happens to be Chun Li's father. SF0: Chun Li goes after Vega to arrest him for his drugs trafics, but even more for having killed her father. She gets defeated, but is still alive. SF2: Having recovered, she is once more determined to arrest him. Regarding Nash/Charlie, Guile and Vega/M.Bison. ATTENTION, SPOILERS FOR SF0'S ENDINGS!! SF0: Nash, a member of the US army, wants to arrest for Vega/M.Bison for some unknown reason. As he gets victorious, Vega strikes him in his back, viciously killing him. SF2: Guile, a very close friend of Nash, goes after Vega to kill him, for good. Now the rest of the characters, in all the episodes, have simple stories, with simple plots that are explained at the end of the game. So I'm not gonna spoil everything... I think the above is enough. | THE TRUTH ABOUT AKUMA/KEN AND RYU. | ||||||||||||||||
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| AH!! MY GODDESS one of the best anime ever. |
Ah! My Goddess! is a 5 video OAV which has the storyline revolve around two people, Belldandy, a goddess, and Morisato Keiichi, a freshman at Nekomi Institute of Technology. Belldandy and Keiichi meet each other when Keiichi tries to order out but all the restaurants are closed or will not deliver. After a while, Keiichi gets extremely frustrated and accidentally calls up the Relief Goddess Office. What happens next is that Belldandy comes and meets with Keiichi (this is putting it bluntly, actually, Keiichi was more than a little shocked when a girl pops out of a mirror). Belldandy offers Keiichi one wish and Keiichi wants someone just like Belldandy to stay with him forever. Well, you know what happens next. But if you do not know, Belldandy grants Keiichi his wish and she has to stay with him forever. When Belldandy grants Keiichi his wish, a wish contract is made which is enforced by the omnipotent "Ultimate Force". Unfortunately, Keiichi lives in a men's dorm which does not permit any women inside, so he and Belldandy are literally tossed out of the dorm by his sempai. Keiichi and Belldandy leave the dorm and go house hunting but this turns up nothing, so they head to an old temple where they permanently settle down. After this point, the story gets more entertaining and more characters are introduced, including Keiichi's younger sister and Belldandy's sisters. Ah! My Goddess! gets more romantic and funnier as the story goes on, which is the reason why I consider this to be one of best anime that I have ever seen. Characters of Ah! My Goddess! Belldandy Belldandy is a goddess who works at the Relief Goddess Office and in Heaven. She is the first and most important goddess that the audience is introduced to. She has the marks of a goddess (look at the mark on her forehead and the triangular markings on her cheeks). Belldandy is more beautiful than Cindy Crawford, with blue eyes and long, flowing, brown or light brown hair. Belldandy is known to be a First Class goddess, Second Category, and Unlimited license. Morisato Keiichi Keiichi is a freshman in Nekomi Institute of Technology. He is short, a little shy, cannot swim and does not have a girlfriend until he meets Belldandy. Keiichi is the star driver for the Nekomi Institute of Technology's Automobile Club. He also builds and drives motorcycles. Keiichi has black hair and brown eyes. He also is quite prone to being involved in accidents (falling off the roof and other things). Urd Urd is the older sister of Belldandy and Skuld and is also a goddess. She is quite flashy in her choice of apparel and is a trouble maker. Urd acts as Cupid for Keiichi and Belldandy because she cannot stand seeing Keiichi act like an idiot in front of her sister (in other words, Urd wants Keiichi to make the moves on Belldandy). She also is the goddess that runs the system back in Heaven. Urd is a Second Class goddess with Limited license. Urd has long white hair, dark skin, green eyes, and wears the revealing outfits. Skuld Skuld is the younger sister of Urd and Belldandy. She comes to the Earthly Plane from Heaven because all of her sisters are gone and she is bored to death. Skuld is also a Second Class goddess. Up in Heaven, Skuld is the debugger of the problems in the system. The problems are these cute little rabbits that have 8 spider legs rather than 4 rabbit paws. She uses her telescoping hammer to conk these rabbits on the head. Skuld uses this hammer once for conking a human being ( I wonder who??) when she accidentally appears right next to a person who is taking a bath. Skuld is short, has long black hair and brown eyes. Morisato Megumi Megumi is the younger sister of Keiichi. She is starting to attend Nekomi Institute of Technology, the same school that her brother and Belldandy attends. Megumi always makes comments about Keiichi's relationship with women. She has neck length brown hair and brown eyes. | ||||||||||||||||
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