Final Fantasy Tactics A2:Grimoire of the Rift Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift is the Nintendo DS sequel to the Game Boy Advance's Final Fantasy Tactics Advance. Grimoire is a strategy role-playing game that has inherited many of the franchise's characteristics, including the classic grid-based movement system and a bevy of new jobs, but it also boasts full stylus controls and a dual-screen presentation. However, some may feel bogged down by its frustrating law system and steep learning curve. Grimoire weaves the tale of Luso Clemens, a young boy who opens an ancient text that magically transports him to the world of Ivalice, where he immediately joins a clan that is determined to help him find a way home. The generic plot is advanced by completing quests, of which there are a formidable 400, ranging from simple fetch quests to missions that unlock classes or advance the story. All quests are picked up at the local pub for a small finder's fee and most culminate in a battle, and there are no random battles to beef up your team's experience coffer, although there is the occasional mugging or treasure opportunity presented on the world map.
Battles in Grimoire use a colorful 2D map with varied terrain that affects your unit's grid-based movement area. The game retains the franchise's turn-based battle system and displays the turn order and character-status effects on the top screen while target information is aligned at the bottom. You win the battle by completing the quest's objective, which is usually to eliminate a target. Although the 2D map understandably limits you from spinning the battlefield for closer inspection, this restriction gets frustrating because characters who are bunched up together often block other tiles from view, which makes it likelier that you'll select the wrong tile if you're using the cumbersome stylus controls. It's just easier to navigate through menus or traverse the battlefield via standard directional buttons. The lack of a zoom option is another irritation. To put a spin on the standard battling, Square Enix once again included ...
Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo's Dungeon marks the third time Square Enix has paired dungeon-crawling with the world's most adorable yellow bird, capitalizing on the public's seemingly insatiable appetite for anything with a cutesy Final Fantasy theme. The game is an aesthetically pleasing continuation of its PlayStation predecessors, boasting charming visuals and soft melodies. It also introduces a job-changing system as popularized by Final Fantasy Tactics. But don't let its endearing, child-friendly exterior fool you: Chocobo's Dungeon is an intense, often grueling challenge for even experienced dungeon crawlers.
Chocobo's Dungeon opens with treasure hunter Cid and his feathery sidekick, Chocobo, searching for an ancient trinket known as Timeless Power. A familiar foe beats them to it, however, and then uses the bobble to send our heroes to the town of Lostime in an alternate world. The citizens of Lostime harbor a dark secret that has been sealed inside their lost memories, and only Chocobo, with the aid of a boy who fell from the sky, can unlock them by braving the dungeons of their minds. The bulk of the gameplay occurs in randomly generated, grid-based dungeons that you explore in a turn-based manner. Moving a single panel, or performing any action qualifies as a move, which prompts every monster on the floor to receive a turn. The beauty of Chocobo's Dungeon is that some strategy is required to keep Chocobo in tip-top shape, because it's far better to ambush enemies in hallways or lure foes to you than to go on a rampage and find that you're quickly surrounded and overwhelmed. You'll also have to keep an eye on the constantly draining food gauge because starvation saps Chocobo's health points. If you run out of health points, your bruised, broken chocobo is immediately kicked from the dungeon. A welcome addition that'll help tip the scale in your favor, however, is the ability to upgrade your weapons and armor at the local blacksmith's forge. There, you can even ...
As the boy-king of a burgeoning young kingdom, you've got your hands full. Your beloved papa is missing and presumed dead, the cackling dark lord is on the loose, and a penguin keeps following you around while tossing barbed insults in your general direction. There is an upside, though. For one, you can use a magic power called Architek to summon buildings (and their residents) onto your town's empty lots, which helps increase your sparse population. For another, you don't need to personally bother with the local monster population; instead, you just hire adventurers to do the dirty deeds for you. This sounds like a solid setup for Square Enix's sunny strategy romp, Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King. But while its title might be imposing, the gameplay is shallow, repetitive, and fundamentally unbalanced. Furthermore, if you want to get the most out of this $15 WiiWare download, you need to spend even more money. Want a new outfit for the king? It'll cost you $1. Want a new house to supplement the paltry selection of abodes included with the standard download? It's another $3. Getting the most out of this thin game requires spending twice the asking amount, and that's a bona fide rip-off. Of course, even the player-named king knows that nothing in life is truly free. To build homes and produce a population, you need crystal, and to get it, you have to hire adventurers and send them into the local dungeons, where deposits of the stuff are guarded by ferocious monsters. At least, the game tells us they're ferocious; you'll never see one for yourself. In any case, you start off each day by posting a couple of behests to the town bulletin boards, and the adventurers you've hired all gather there. You can then send them off on assignment, ask them to go gain some experience, or even appoint them to a new job, such as a black mage or a thief. Once they've got their mission, your hirelings gather supplies from the local shop and traipse toward their destination. While your adventurers are out, you can gallivant about the town using your kingly avatar. Assuming you have enough crystal and haven't surpassed the ...
Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII (ダージュ オブ ケルベロス -ファイナルファンタジーVII, -Dāju obu Keruberosu -Fainaru Fantajī Sebun) is a third person shooter/RPG video game developed and published by Square Enix. It is part of the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII metaseries, a multimedia collection set within the universe of the popular 1997 video game Final Fantasy VII. The game was released on January 26, 2006 in Japan, August 15, 2006 in North America and November 17, 2006 in Europe and in Australasia.
Gameplay
Dirge of Cerberus is a third-person shooter (the first game of this genre developed by Square Enix) with RPG elements. Battles occur in real-time, with the HUD displaying information including Vincent's HP and MP, the currently selected item and the quantity thereof, and a cross-hair to aid in targeting enemies. Defeating enemies yields EXP, which is totalled at the end of each stage and can either be used to level up Vincent, increasing his statistics, or converted to gil, which can be used to purchase items and equipment upgrades at jukebox-shaped shops scattered throughout each stage, or the shop at the end of a stage, which also allows the purchase of additional equipment. Unlike Final Fantasy VII, where a character could equip three types of equipment (weapon, armour and accessory), Vincent's equipment consists solely of his weapon, which has amalgamated the effects of armour and accessories through customization. Players can customize three weapons through the frame (Vincent's handgun, Cerberus, introduced in Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children and named after the Greek mythological creature of the same name, as well as a rifle, Hydra and a machine gun, Griffon, two new weapon types also named after Greek mythological creatures (although the spelling "Griffon" is incorrect in terms of the reference)) and the size of the barrel (short-, regular or long-barrel, with longer barrels affording targeting of enemies that are further away at the cost of weight). Accessories include a sniper scope, charms (such as the Cerberus charm) which can increase Vincent's defense and decrease the weight of the gun (which affects the speed ...
Death "Hey, would you say I became a hero?" —Zack Fair
While Zack and Cloud head back towards Midgar, a massive army of Shin-Ra Troops awaits them. Despite Cissnei and Tseng's attempts to save Zack first, the Shin-Ra army attacks. Zack fights hard against overwhelming odds. However, the enemy is just too many, and despite all of Zack's SOLDIER training, he is defeated. Riddled with bullets, and his Digital Mind Wave destroyed, Zack is barely alive when Cloud awakes and comes to him. Zack hands the Buster Sword to him, like Angeal handed the Buster Sword to Zack four years earlier. Cloud wanders off towards Midgar. Zack is pulled into the Lifestream by Angeal. Zack wonders if he has become a hero after all. The combined weight of all this trauma finally makes Cloud snap, and, aided by the Jenova cells he now has in his body, he adopts Zack's persona, combining it with his own. He truly believes that he was successful in joining SOLDIER, and that he fulfilled Zack's role in the fateful mission to Nibelheim 5 years before. Upon his arrival in Midgar, Cloud seeks work as a mercenary, just as Zack said he intended to do. When Tifa finds Cloud at the Sector 7 Station, she convinces him to join her and Barret with AVALANCHE. This is where Final Fantasy VII begins.
Final Fantasy VII
Much of Final Fantasy VII's story revolves around Cloud's battle to reclaim his memory, to accept his true identity rather than relying on his constructed "Zack" personality—a combination of Zack's persona, the stories Zack had told him, and what he presumed a First Class SOLDIER would act like—and to validate himself in a world that has rejected him. ...
Of course, even the player-named king knows that nothing in life is truly free. To build homes and produce a population, you need crystal, and to get it, you have to hire adventurers and send them into the local dungeons, where deposits of the stuff are guarded by ferocious monsters. At least, the game tells us they're ferocious; you'll never see one for yourself. In any case, you start off each day by posting a couple of behests to the town bulletin boards, and the adventurers you've hired all gather there. You can then send them off on assignment, ask them to go gain some experience, or even appoint them to a new job, such as a black mage or a thief. Once they've got their mission, your hirelings gather supplies from the local shop and traipse toward their destination.
