Final Fantasy titles lead each other in.... (Part Two of Three)

Part two! if you don't know what the hell am I ranting about, read the previous episode here

Final Fantasy 6 -the most "ahead of it's era" graphics.

This game was one of the most graphically advanced game of all time. If you see the screenshot here:

I shit you not, this game was released in SNES; in 1994. NINETEEN NINETY-FOUR, and the graphics are better than most 3DS games released today. Not only that, this game also was one of the most successful Square Enix game of all time, here are some quote from wikipedia: 

"Released to critical acclaim, Final Fantasy VI was a landmark title for the role-playing genre and is often considered one of the greatest video games of all time. Its Super Nintendo and PlayStation versions have sold over 3.48 million copies worldwide to date as a stand-alone game, as well as over 750,000 copies as part of the Japanese Final Fantasy Collection and the North American Final Fantasy Anthology. Final Fantasy VI has won numerous awards since its release"

The graphics, the storyline, the beautiful, yet powerfully character-wise developed characters, the gameplay, combined with Yoshitaka Amano's beautiful high fantasy-slash-steampunk-slash-1001 nights art direction: Not only it was one the most successful FF title of all time, FF6 was also considered one of the BEST GAMES OF ALL TIME. I even typed it in caps, FF6 deserved it.

And as a bonus, FF6 got the hottest main character of all Final Fantasies.

  Me gusta. 

.

Final Fantasy 7 - Best Storyline.

Final Fantasy 7 was the most popular, yes. But for me, what grips me the most was the story line. Ok, some may argue with me, but please hear me out first. 

Firstly, you play as a terrorist, yes, Cloud, Barret, Tifa and the rest of the Avalanche was a friggin terrorist. Indeed, they were fighting for a good cause - the existence of the planet - but that doesn't stop them from bombing huge structures and rioting against the reigning government of Midgar. I'm not saying that playing as a terrorist is cool (remember Call Of Duty MW2? That was NOT cool), but it's a rare thing in JRPGs where you play as someone who is considered an enemy of the reigning government.

Secondly, their enemy - Sephiroth - was a hero. Hero who stopped the world war (between Wutai and Midgar), and also a hero who went insane and tried to destroy the world. Turns out, people who we considered to be heroes are not unlike us, see? they are humans after all, they have their flaws.

Which brings me to my third point. All the characters are human, they all have their flaws. Cloud was a scaredy cat who can't even talk to the girl of her dream and gets bullied. Barret was a man filled with guilt (having failed to save his village and his best friend) and tried to take it out against the world. Cid was an alcoholic, foul mouthed failed astronaut who struggled to make up for his mistakes. The list goes on. Too bad the spin offs sort of ruined the characters though. 

And the ending was brilliant: the good guys managed to save the world from a great catastrophe, but do they survive? what happened to them? In the end of the day, nothing was really won or lost. It was an open ending, it's up to the players to decide what happened next. 

and several years later, here comes the spin offs that ruined it all. 

Don't get me wrong, I loved Advent Children. Though I just pretend that it's not a sequel to the awesome FF7.

Final Fantasy 8 - least likeable main character.

Final Fantasy 8 was one of the games that successfully reeled non-RPG fans into Final Fantasy with it's graphics and tear-jerking love story, despite having a lot of gameplay flaws. 

But what really get's into me was the main character; Squall. Sure, he's a dashing young man with a unique weapon (yeah, the gunblade was one of the most creative weapon designs of all time). BUT! He's a jerk.

Yeah, he's a jerk and a lot of people seem to agree with me. here's a wikipedia quote:

"IGN, on the other hand, stated that "the problem [with Final Fantasy VIII] is that the character at the heart of everything, Squall, is basically a pouty jerk", adding "when your story is character centered, you'd better center it on a character the audience can care about. Squall... just doesn't fit the bill". 1UP.com ranked Squall second on their list of the "Top 5 Most Irritating RPG Protagonists", stating that while Squall was an attempt to "cater to the fedora-wearing, trench-coat clad folks", his lack of social skills tends to alienate players towards the character. Cheat Code Central included him in their list of top ten lamest video game characters of all time, criticizing his personality. Edge compared his character with the Final Fantasy VII protagonist Cloud Strife, criticizing that Squall's anger "didn't seem to have any context" unlike Cloud's angst which was developed by one of the central events from Final Fantasy VII. His relation with Rinoa also received negative comments, as Edge states "he [Squall] suddenly falls in "love" with [Rinoa] at the end [of Final Fantasy VIII]." A more comical comparison was made by GamesRadar in their "RPG Emo-Off", in which Squall was defeated by Cloud due to their reasons for their angst. Squall was also featured in 1UP's article "Top 5 Final Fantasy Character Types" in which he was in the second category, "The Sullen Asshole", alongside with Cloud and Cecil from Final Fantasy IV.GameSpy featured him in their comical feature "Videogame Characters Who Would Suck in Real Life" in which they stated Squall would be a terrible soldier in real life."

Sorry, brah. Better re-evaluate your attitude.

Final Fantasy 9 - The most adventurous storyline.

Before we begin, turn this thing on: 

In this game:

You are Zidane, a thief embarking on an adventure to kidnap the princess, and to find out about who you really are. 

You are Vivi, a young man wanting to see a popular play in a big city but instead got tricked and dragged into an adventure to find out about yourself. 

You are Garnet, a princess on an adventure to investigate your step mom's shady deals with an arms smuggler. 

You are Eiko, a little summoner in your adventure to win the dashing thief's heart. 

You are Steiner, an old knight guarding your princess on her adventure. 

You are Freya, a knight on an adventure to redeem your kingdom's defeat and searching for your lost love. And you are Amarant and Quina, who is just tagging along with the rest of the crew.

And they are on an adventure, from the small kingdom of Alexandria, to the Marshes of Qu, the Great Kingdom of Lindblum, even to another dimension, the Soulless Village of Bran Bal. 

You are on an adventure. The biggest adventure of all Final Fantasies.

Ok, but seriously, the adventure was so awesome, that storyline-wise I had a hard time picking which one had the most awesome between this, FF2, FF6, FF7 and FF12. But this one won by a long shot.

OK then, that's enough for today. To be concluded! I hope you had fun reading this, and please look forward for my next blog post!  

Awesome Artists #6 Sizzling hot girl artworks

I know, the most commonly drawn subject in art: girls. Since I'm a perfectly healthy, normal young man, I never complain: MORE GIRLS = BETTER.
And you know what's even better? girls created by these artists. They really know how to bring their beautiful girls to stand out, they know how to accentuate the grace and bring out the charms on their creations. IMHO, these artists among the best in terms of drawing girls.

Get ready to be humbled guys, here they are:

1. Plusnine

2. Hyung Tae Kim

(sometimes his artworks are borderline NSFW, since he tend to flaunt the girls' assets (u know what i mean la) a bit too much, but he's awesome nonetheless)

3. Takenaka

4. Kwang Ra Park

5. Wang Lei

6. J Scott Campbell

(who doesn't know him? his girls are friggin legendary)

7. Adam Hughes 

8. Mario Wibisono

(last but definitely not least, a fellow Indonesian. i raise my hat to you, sir)

Phew, that was fun! stay tune for more artsy stuff! (and maybe more girl artworks, since I enjoyed this so much :D )

Awesome Artists #5 (Special Edition)

It's been a long time since my last post, I've been very busy. Due to the nature of the project that I've been working on, combined with my not-so-good health during these past three days, it's a bit hard for me to do anything other than sleeping or playing Dark Souls during my free time.

To make up for the lost time, I want to share something special on this episode of Awesome Artists. These artists are basically among my favorite artists of all time. They have been a great source of inspiration for me for a long time, my works are heavily influenced by their expertise and creativity. So with no further ado, here they are:


1. Tatsuyuki Tanaka

2. Vera Brosgol

3. Tracy Butler

4. Skan Srisuwan

OK, that's it for today, see you next time!

Movie Cast Picks : Dragon Age Origins

Dragon Age : Origins was definitely among the best 7th gen RPGs, it has every bits and pieces of LotR, Game of Thrones, and even classic JRPGS such as Suikoden, or Beyond The Beyond.

What if, just what if, it is adapted into a film? Here's my picks for the cast:

Daniel Craig as the Warden

Although yes, he would have to be a bit scruffy to wash away the Bond image off him to become the warden, like the one he did in The Golden Compass, more or less.

Jeremy Renner as Alistair

Yep, I think he will make a perfect Alistair, remember how much we loved him as everyone's favorite sidekick, Hawkeye? I just can imagine him saying "Swooping is bad"

Donnie Wahlberg as Oghren

Yeah, I know, not the best choice, but oh well.


Colin Salmon as Sten

Ok, now here's a good choice, I can imagine him portraying the cold, almost antisocial Sten


Ed Skrein as Zevran

To tell you the truth, I hate Zevran  (i put him on the party, but later, yap i killed him) and when i saw Ed Skrein portraying Daario Naaharis in GoT, I feel the same way. so i think this is a perfect choice.

William Fichtner as Mac Tir Loghain

I can't think of any other choices, William Fichtner is a perfect Loghain.

and now what you have been waiting for (I know I do)...... the girls!

Tilda Swinton as Wynne

This one, I can't think of any other choice either, Tilda Swinton really got the wise, battle-veteran, old lady aura on her.

Rose Leslie as Leliana

Another Game of Thrones reference. I always think that Ygritte, portrayed bt Rose Leslie would make a perfect face for Leliana. A confident, street smart, yet a pious assassin girl.

Olivia Thirlby as Morrigan

The last but definitely not least.... Olivia Thirlby as Morrigan. Morrigan was one of the most interesting persona in the world of modern gaming, She is funny, but sarcastic and flirty, and at the same time, she is also a young girl that sees the world as an adventure. Beat that, Final Fantasy girls!

Well those are my picks, I know I missed a lot of important characters such as queen Anora, king Cailan, Duncan, Arl Eamon, and Bann Teagan, but who needs details?

Phew, that was fun!