Final Fantasy XV

 Up for the Challenge

A Final Fantasy for Fans and First-Timers.

It's been five years already since I started a marathon of the most recognizable JRPG series, and then reviewing them here. As stand alone titles, each one would bring something new to the table, be it a new combat system, a gripping plot, or a new setting.

The fan community is heavily divided by not only which main title is the best or worst, but also by which of them contributed objectively the most, critically or commercially, groundbreaking or tiresomely.

With Final Fantasy XV, a title for which we have waited a long time, I am once again confounded  and conflicted with emotions as to how I would rate it. Following after in my opinion a disastrous direction with XIII, it manages to reverse flip that one's structure.

Love it or hate it, open world is the current trend in video gaming. And this is also the game's strongest point. It's combat system is like a lite edition compared to say, Kingdom Hearts, but for me it worked and it had enough variety with it's weapons while magic and summons took a backseat.

The so called "boy band" or the 4 heroes/brothers for life are all likable, from big brother vanguard Gladio to energetic Prompto to my favorite cooking Ignis who gives gentle advice at night, they accompany Noctis, a fairly convincing protagonist destined and strong willed to claim his heritage.

Quests are granted pretty standard, from fetching to delivering to combating, to miscellaneous activities like Chocobo Racing and fishing, the side content of Final Fantasy XV is easily satisfying, so much that I leveled just enough in order to finish the main story.

And that's easily the game's weakest point, alongside the second half direction of returning to tight corridors and hallways, with Chapter 13 standing out as the most generic and redundant time in this fantasy, reflecting on everything that is wrong with the industry today.

Granted, Final Fantasy storylines have always gone over the top, but atleast some of them remain classic in nature and have a well constructed narrative and presentation to show them off, alongside drama and emotional effects. With XV, I didn't care on the grand picture for what was happening, as camping out at night or exploring was more satisfying.

Graphically, it's also a mixed bag, alongside glitches and bugs that really should not had happened with this game's infamous development hell/vaporware status. At times the landscapes, outposts and the people can be beautiful, but at other times, NPC's can freeze or move awkward, and textures can fail, depending on the camera's angle.

The priorities as to how the game got designed in it's categories sometimes also questioned me back towards the Japanese developers at Square Enix as to what they were thinking, and once again does Chapter 13 come to mind and be the prime example.

In the end though, I really enjoyed the first half as I took my time driving around the land with the Regalia and 3 of my best virtual buddies while memorizing with tunes from all of the old main Final Fantasy soundtracks, which easily beats out the second half.

Rating: 7.5

Rogue One

It's the beginning of a new era for Star Wars, and this is the first side story full feature to embrace the silver screen. After having seen this in 3D Dolby Cinema at the Vue in Hilversum with my brother and friends, I can easily recommend it to fans and even newcomers.

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story details the origins of how the superweapon known as the Death Star was constructed by a collaborating imperial weapon scientist(Mads Mikkelsen). Of course, Revenge of the Sith showed this happening already at the end, but this goes deeper with the details.

The scientist's daugher Jyn played by the beautiful Felicia Jones is destined and determined to become a heroine for the Rebellion/Alliance, and together with a pack of rebels including Donnie Yen's blind character and Forrest Whitaker's mentor character, they fight back.

While the tone offers a minimum of comic relief, this time in the form of a droid, it does set it right with granting a serious dramatic mood, and for the first time, I felt connected towards the rebellion as a whole, not because of the characters for who I did not really care for, but more because of the cause and the means towards it.

Unlike hardened Star Wars original trilogy fans, I did see this movie bring improvement in one decisive factor, and I'm referring to the action battle scenes then, which are easily the best since Empire Strikes Back.

Like The Force Awakens before, it borrows from familiar trademarks from the space epos, and yet it also works very good as a connection bridge towards A New Hope. Maybe this movie shouldn't have been made, and some unexplained lore should had been intact, but now that the franchise is expanding, it is inevitable.

I found it refreshing to see a bleak and negative ending, as it meant that the whole cast basically sacrificed itself for the rebellion and Luke and friends to be given hope in Episode IV. Arguably, it also works as a stand alone sci-fi, whether you are a longtime fan or not.

Rogue One is in overall a very intense sci-fi space epos with flexibility, even showing us in my opinion the best rendered CGI yet in actors who either died, or are older now. Better get used to spin-offs like this, or else you won't survive the ride on this cashcow. :)

Rating: 8.0

PlayStation 4, Part Two

I have been a new member of the PlayStation family since 2014. After I got baited into falling for the Destiny combo with a white console, I ditched the former while I had to wait atleast for a full year until the truly interesting and good games started coming out, and I'm talking about exclusives then.

After humble but great beginnings happened with The Last of Us Remastered and Bloodborne,  I don't regret buying the system at all, as I previously borrowed a PlayStation 3 from a friend and beat and reviewed numerous games, acquiring the taste and knowledge that the brand has enough good exclusives.

Now let´s talk about the other features and stuff for a bit. PlayStation Now as a cloud gaming service has failed for me so far, because while I am able to play natural PS4 games online just fine and smoothly, the streaming games lagged painfully beyond being playable.

The PS4 Pro is overkill for me at the moment, because not only can it not playback Blu-ray discs, but I don't have a 4K TV either. The only true improvement it has for me is that some games will get 60 frames per second.

PlayStation Plus is at first a weird requirement to play online, but after a few months I got my "value" of it back by providing free games. Usually, these would be average indie games, but sometimes, titles like Resident Evil Remastered would definitely make me happy to have a subscription, and of course to be able to play multiplayer online.

The PlayStation VR seems to be succesful for now, but I think that I myself am not ready for it yet, nor do I think that there are truly groundbreaking VR games available for it yet. Plus, the price for the device is rather expensive,

My gaming library in early 2016 expanded from 7 games, to 17 games at the end of december, proving that the system has enough magnificent good quality of games out, and there are many upcoming promising games coming out in early 2017, which I will mention in january traditionally.

I don't mind buying particular third party games for it despite having a good PC, because I feel that some games are better played on a big HD TV, and I prefer to play third person perspectives on my couch.

So in overall, right now, I am really, really enjoying all of the games in my collection, and Sony has easily "provided" for me as a gamer this year, while Nintendo clearly hasn't. 2017 cannot come soon enough in order to experience the latest in gaming!

Star Wars: The Force Awakens

 

It has been nearly a year, and the first anthology film has already just been released into cinema's, as I am about to see it this weekend, but before that, let me review the first new generation Star Wars film, which is Episode VII.

Like many have already deducted, it's story premise is most of all similar to Episode IV or A New Hope, and it continues to connect to the overall saga by keeping trademarks, tropes and familiars intact.

A new generation of epic space operas is upon us, and Episode VII delivers entirely. With an old and new cast carrying on, The Force Awakens is a worthy successor and instantly is just as good in it's own merits as Episode III and V did as the best entries in their own trilogies.

J. J. Abrams has taken over the cape and mantle so to speak and it's so good that the movie was over before I knew it.

When the First Order has risen out of the ashes of the Galactic Empire, the Force starts awakening in our heroes Finn and Rey, a former Stormtrooper and a mysterious lonesome gal who is technically skilled and a fighter.

Pretty much all of the Star Wars tropes return, including the opening prologue text, the transition scenes, the various foreign or alien creatures, the Jedi religion, "there is still good in him", "May the Force be with you" and an important character dies near the end, which is Han Solo this time.

I didn't like Kylo Ren at first because he sounded like an emotional trainwreck and a coward hiding behind a mask. But upon reviewing, I saw how he is struggling and being confounded by which side of the Force to take, making him actually my favorite new character.

Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens is a very strong start of a new trilogy, and with it, a new celebrating generation of a Star Wars fan community. We will very soon be able to judge Disney's direction with the franchise, and if  we're lucky, Disney might just start a better "Expanded Universe"  than Lucasfilm or Marvel!

Rating: 8.0

Berlin

 

As for the last november weekend of this year, I decided to discover the capital of Germany. Not only did I decide to visit the highlights, but I have had a reunion with my German friend Uwe, who was my roommate during my journey through North Korea.

He is just as passionate as I am about traveling, and it was great to catch up with our memories, our present trip through Berlin and to talk about future destinations. For instance, his son is waiting for him in Nigeria, while Uwe's number 1 dream right now is to explore Tuvalu.

I went to see a total of 9 museums over the course of just a small weekend including friday, starting from the afternoon, not too shabby! These 9 include the Altes, Neues, Bode, Pergamon and Alte Nationalgalerie museums(of which my favorite probably is Bode), Schloss Charlottenburg, Topography of Terror, Museum Haus am Checkpoint Charlie and the DDR museum.

My time in these places was time consuming, but very rewarding, and I was even impressed at some of the art objects found on the so called Museum Island. On the other side, Berlin's recent history including World War II and the Cold War is impossible to ignore and the numerous stories in their respectful museums completely immersed me.

Furthermore, I also went to see the highlight sightseeings, including Brandenburger Tor, the Siegessäule, Potsdamer Platz, Alexanderplatz, Checkpoint Charlie, the Berlin Wall at various spots and my 2 most favorite landmarks were Berliner Dom and the Reichstag.

Other than mentioning all that, I gotta say that Berlin is immense and a big metropolitan city to traverse. It's truly a beautiful and nowadays modern city which surely will continue to be extremely relevant for the country and the European Union.

The Journey of Martial Arts

 

After 10.5 years of training Kenpo Karate, a mixed martial arts which has supposedly numerous amounts of influences including, Hawaian, Filipino, Okinawan, Chinese and Japanese martial arts, I was accepted as a third degree of a brown belt wearer.

Performing this for over a decade and having been teached by dozens of instructors, professors and masters, I can say that the world of martial arts as I have experienced it so far has been pretty interesting. It's not my most passionate leisure, but it remains important to me.

I'm looking forward towards the next Kenpo chapter I will have, which will not only include learning about the new upcoming techniques and forms I am about to perform, but it will most likely also be the comeback of me returning towards tournament activities.

I am also now authorized to start teaching others officially about Kenpo Karate, obviously after this has been approved in the right amount of timing and planning. Although my hearing isn't the best, I absolutely enjoy teaching others when it "clicks" and then receiving their satisfaction as compensation.

Of course, since Kenpo Karate's future is truthfully uncertain, considering that grandmaster Ed Parker did not name a successor, and that every school in the world is interpreting the teachings, the motions and the philosophy in their own way, I wonder if it will remain relevant or even evolve.

The political and philosophical sides of this martial arts is a very hot debate among the schools, and perhaps I might write about those big topics next time. For now, it's time to relax my muscles, remember my positioning stances, and prepare myself for the next step on the martial arts ladder.

Wii U's Decline, and Dawn of Nintendo Switch

Regrettably, the Wii U has become Nintendo's worst selling console of all time. With admirable third party developers abandoning the ship within a year, the ride of the Wii U and it's dual screen concept has come and gone away.

Despite the HD output, only a handful of first party titles are really worth it on the system, as the last wave of releases has been received rather below the quality of what we can expect for them. Examples include Star Fox Zero, Paper Mario Color Splash and the early case Game & Wario.

I suppose I can write another blogpost about my personal top 10 video games on the system, but I am shocked to note that the Wii U has even fewer must have titles when compared to the N64, which is generally seen as having quality over quantity in a revolutionary 3D period.

So yeah, I won't really miss the Wii U, because it's successor has recently been announced in the form of the Nintendo Switch. It's a console/handheld hybrid system with a plethora of confirmed 3rd party support, including newcomers like Bethesda and From Software.

The greatest news about it is that pouring the R&D divisions into one platform while maintaining backwards compatibility through Virtual Console and a higher graphical output means that Nintendo is back into the spotlight and is combining all of it's strength, while attempting to rejuvenate it's inferior aspects, including third party support and graphical output.

I can't wait to hear and see more news about the Nintendo Switch in january, when the release date, pricing and launch window will be confirmed to the general audience. And without a gimmick in the spotlight, which turned profitable or not(Wii-mote and Wii U Gamepad), the focus is now on the games itself.

The marketing has already improved as the message of the first reveal is clear, it's not the Wii Three, it's not targeted for teenagers and kids, but rather primarily towards young adults. The mission and vision of the Switch are  pretty clear, meaning that it's really a system dedicated to gaming, while adding a lot of flexibility in the form of the hybrid switch and all of the potential peripheral controllers it could receive.

I really hope that Nintendo will deliver legendary with the games once again. Breath of the Wild and that sneak peak at the next 3D Mario are no brainers, but definitely do not forget about forgotten franchises. Keep mixing it up with innovation and new stuff, and the Switch will do just fine.

I'm rooting for it!