Sep 22, 2012

New Remixes, Future Projects

I've been meaning to post something here for quite a while so here's some new music, all megaman related.

First a blizzard man remix:

And a Chill Penguin/Armored Armadillo Remix:


Both were made for different Mega Man competitions.

Now I've been reading up a lot on production lately and polishing my skills to start making new music again, and I'll probably be posting it here.  Diablo 3 and other games kind of separated me from this hobbie but I'm getting back into it again.

I'll be posting a few other entries on some topics I've been wanting to write about for a while too.  See ya then!

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Apr 23, 2012

Street Fighter Dubstep and Chiptune Battlefield 3

I rarely use this blog for pimping out my music (well, rarely use it at all) but I think I'm gonna start doing so, since I have some neat stuff coming up and I've been more active in the remixing community.

First, I want to share one of the mixes I'll be contributing to the Street Fighter 25th anniversary Music Tribute.  It's a Dubstep-like remix of the Cammy and Ken themes in Super Street fighter 2.


Second, I'll share this Chiptune-style Remix of the Battlefield 3 theme I made some time ago.  People seemed to enjoy it:


I will be doing a couple of mixes more for the Street fighter tribute, and I will be sharing them soon.  In the meantime, enjoy these.

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Apr 10, 2012

Classic Mega Man re-play

A few months ago, I decided to go and beat every classic mega man in order. I gotta, say it's amazing how Capcom nailed the Mega Man formula so early. Really, it only needed minor adjustments (which were made in Mega Man 2) in order to make it the perfect platforming experience.


Anyways, I wanted to reiterate my view on Mega Man's difficulty. People were crying about Mega Man 9 when it came out and how hard it was. Well I'll tell you this: after playing through every single Mega Man there is, I find Mega Man 9 to actually be one of the easiest in the series, no joke.

And this actually was my first thought when playing the game for the first time, and I couldn't understand why people were crying so much about it. They whined so much that capcom even introduced an "easy as pie" mode for Mega Man 10.

Mega Man 9 is about as easy as Mega Man 2 (which is one of the easier ones, although my personal favorite). Go play some Mega Man 3, 4, or 6 and tell me with a straight face that Mega Man 9 is ZOMFGHARD. And i won't even mention Mega Man 8, which took the difficulty to ridiculously high levels.

Gamers nowadays seem to have been spoiled by extremely complacent modern games. Nowadays most games don't even really have a game over screen, you can just always start form the last save point or some crap, which is like 10 feet from where you died. I mean, yes some old school games were ridiculously hard with one hit deaths and no continues, etc. But I think games like Mega Man have the right difficulty that makes you play again even if you're losing, because you know you aren't losing because of cheap deaths or bad controls. You're losing because you suck and need to play to get better at this game.

Anyways, it was a blast.

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Nov 24, 2011

Revisiting Final Fantasy 8: Disc Three and Four

So, Final Fantasy 8 is better than 13. There, I said it.


That's this post in a nutshell, since I started my re-play of FF8 just to compare the two while they were fresh in my mind.

Anyways, I will sum up disc 3 and 4 in one post since not much happens in the last disc other than utter insanity and ridiculousness.

We start disc 3 with yet another Laguna flashback, nothing of interest happens in it besides a few lame attempts at comedy. We cut to Squall who suddenly realizes he cares for Rinoa. yes, after being annoyed by this bitch he realizes he cares for her. This scene is done so badly, the way Squall's personality just flips the switch from asshole to caring carebear, you will have a hard time not laughing your ass off. Anyways we're supposed to look for Ellone now. A lot of stuff happens before you can find her, most of it random and uninteresting. Then you find out that Laguna is the leader of the most advanced civilization on this world. Yes, this poor man's Forrest Gump is the leader of guys that have a huge space station and technology beyond belief.

So after all that nonsense sinks in you are tasked to getting Rinoa to the space station. then the monolith from 2001: a space odyssey attacks everyone for some reason. Then Rinoa wakes up from the coma and she's now possessed by an evil sorceress FROM THE FUTURE!. Then you find out the moon is the home of like a billion monsters and then these monsters cramp up in a spot in the moon and attack the earth through space then you find a dead evil sorceress from the past that is being kept in the station and the evil sorceress from the future who also possessed the sorceress from the present wants to possess her now and then the space station gets attacked and then BANG BOOM KABLOOIE everything goes to shit and then squall and rinoa are left drifting away in outer space!

Did you get all that? and that's only part of the nonsense, stupidity and incredibly rushed and poorly thought-out events that happen from now on. You might be asking how can they top this? well you can bet your ass they can top it just keep on reading.

So now Rinoa and Squall, drifting in outer space, with a limited supply of oxygen. They are about to die, and you sit there, wishing the oxygen runs out and they die a painful slow death. But we're out of luck since what follows is about AN HOUR of Rinoa and squall moving at the speed of half a pixel per minute across the screen in the empty space. Now seriously I know it doesn't lasts and hour, BUT IT SURE AS HELL FEELS LIKE IT. It probably lasts around 10 minutes which is ridiculous for a scene where basically nothing happens. This scene is beyond ridiculous.

Now to my not-so surprise, people who like this game actually think this scene has some deep significance about the relationship between Rinoa and Squall. And well all I have to say to those people is that you should go watch movies with ACTUAL stories about relationships to find out how a real relationship between two people work, so you won't get all teary-eyed about this shitty and utterly ridiculous scene. And no, watching Twilight doesn't count.

Anyways there's a ship conveniently drifting nearby (I don't really think I need to point out how absurdly convenient this is, since everything that happens from now on is beyond common sense) so our "heroes" are safe for now. While in the ship Rinoa and Squall get it on and stuff. Squall sure changed his mind didn't he? he's now all mushy mushy and in love with this whore. Well that doesn't last for long because when they land on earth some guards take her away because they fear the sorceress from the future might possess her again. So much for Squall showing he cares uh.

So speaking about the sorceress from the future, I think it's about time to point out what's going on about these sorceress. See, Sorceress Edea wasn't really bad at all. She was possessed by a sorceress from the future named Ultimecia. why did she do that? well apparently she's slowly creeping her way back through time using the sorceress as hosts till she can get to Sorceress Adel, from the past, which was in suspended animation in space.

All of that sounds really interesting at first, until you realize what Ultimecia's plan actually is. Ultimecia lives in a world far in the future where apparently there's not much left because she rules all. But she isn't happy with that, oh no. See, what this idiot really wants is to trigger "time compression" She compresses time and the universe goes to shit so our heroes and everyone else dies. But here's the thing, in the future, which is Ultimecia's present, everyone is ALREADY DEAD. So what she is doing is a convoluted plan to kill the people that are already dead for her, so she can become the only living being left or some retarded shit. I mean, really?

In her time, there's not much left so she can just use this awesome power she has to obliterate what's left and be the last living being and stuff. Even then, WHY WOULD YOU FUCKING DO THAT? I mean, Kefka wanted to destroy everything, but Kefka was obviously coocoo for cocoa puffs. kefka was completely insane due to the magitek that completely messed up his mind and made him into a nihilistic maniac. That I can understand. But what are the motivations for Ultimecia for doing what she's doing? and again, WHY KILL PEOPLE THAT ARE ALREADY DEAD? She's not insane shes just "evil", so... why?. WHY? It Boggles the mind. I could go on ranting on this for hours on end. The levels of stupidity in this plot just bring my piss to a boil and I think I've nerd raged enough so I'll just say this:

Stupidest villian plot ever.

ANYWAYS, back to our "plot" Squall, in another show of bipolar disorder realizes he loves Rinoa again and goes out to free her. Now our heroes go to see Laguna to make a plan on how to take on Ultimecia. Laguna proposes that we let her compress time and destroy the universe, and if you were expecting a genious, well thought out plan from this guy then you haven't being paying attention.

For the final nail in the coffin of this game's story, we get to hear Laguna's reason for wanting to let Ultimecia fuck everything up. Since they can't travel to the future, the only way to beat her is to let her compress time so they can be in the same timeline. But how are they going to survive time compression if that's exactly why Ultimecia wants to do it, to destroy them?

Well, they will be able to survive it WITH THE POWER OF FRIENDSHIP.

And I mean literally.

No, really, literally. I'm not kidding or interpreting some metaphoric idea, no. Laguna states that the power of friendship will make them survive a catastrophic event that will destroy all time, physics, the universe as we know it. Literally, the power of friendship. All they have to do is think about each other and how much they care about their friendship. And so they do.

And if you're wondering, yes, the power of friendship worked.

I guess My Little Pony had it right, Friendship is Magic.

So that wraps up this mess. Ultimecia is defeated by LITERALLY the power of friendship and all is well in the world.

Final Thoughts

When you think about the reasons Square did the changes they did for FF8, it's obvious they were appealing to a more mature audience, with the realistic graphics instead of the cute models, and with a clear emphasis on a love relationship between the heroes. With that said, it's amazing how they botched this one up and failed so miserably in producing a good story, and it's also unbelievable how childish it turned out to be. The power of friendship saved the universe, literally. And i can't stress that enough because I just can't wrap my head around it.

In Final Fantasy 6 for the final battle with Kefka, our heroes realize that what brought them so far was that they stuck together and cared for each other and that friendship inspired them and gave them strength to fight. That sounds familiar to what we have here, but in this case, their friendship just INSPIRES them, it's not a literal power they can use against Kefka, that would be absurd. It's just some extra motivation. Also, the friendship that develops between the main cast is pretty strong and believable unlike in this game. I could go on comparing this to better RPGs, but I think my point is clear enough.

Back to my first statement, FF8 while still a pretty bad RPG, is still leagues ahead of FF13. I've actually come to appreciate FF8 more now, and while I still hate the most stupid aspects of it, i now appreciate that it still had some good thing going for it, things that we come to expect in a Final Fantasy game. bad game, but good music, good graphics for the time, and a system that while still the most exploitable system I've seen in any RPG, still lets you take choices and offers you options. And I'm talking about junction, not the drawing system, which is still completely fucking retarded.

All in all, I wish Square would go back to this style of games instead of insisting on MORE final fantasy 13. One can only dream...




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Oct 19, 2011

Revisiting Final Fantasy 8: Disc Two

So here we are at disc two. The last time we saw our hero Squall, he was being impaled in the chest by a 6 foot icicle and free-falling about 4 stories down to the floor, surely this means he must be dead, or perhaps in a very complicated coma, or worse maybe he... OH NEVERMIND HE JUST GOT BETTER.


Disc 2 is where all the plot holes in this game's story begin, and it's because it's where the game begins developing the story, which is a giant plothole in itself. For example, no reason is given for Squall's survival from this incident. He doesn't even have a scratch or a contusion, he's just fine and dandy in disc 2.

But anyway in disc 2 is where we get to know better another character named Laguna. Quite frankly he's the best this game has to offer in terms of character development. Laguna is a guy in the galbadian army and your party is constantly passing out and having dreams about him. He has two other friends, Ward and Kiros, who are with him in all his adventures.

Laguna is kind of a Forrest Gump in this game. You see his story through flashbacks, and he's also a complete idiot, but he's also likeable. He goes through a lot of tough stuff but is always optimistic about the future, and cares for those around him. It's no wonder why everyone thinks he's the best character in this game, he's got a decent story and is not an asshole like our friend Squall.

I'll go as far as to say this game SHOULD have been about laguna and not about the idiots from SeeD. Would've made for a better story with better characters and better emotional moments.

So in the recurring dreams you find that Laguna has moved to the quiet town of winhill and is kind of making a life there with his love interest Raine and a little girl called Ellone, while still having his dreams of adventure and of being a journalist. The moments you see in the dreams with him are very touching, But most of his story has nothing to do with the main story in the game so most of these dreams are filler and useless.

Anyways a lot of stuff happens in this disc to our dear group of dumbasses. They get thrown in jail, then escape, then their homes get bombarded by freakin' ICBMs! Love how this world is hi-tech but also full of monsters and magic weaving retards. You get your first "ship" which is the whole Garden you used to live, which is basically a town, that can lift off and fly using the power of... magic? technology? who knows, it's never explained.

What follows is one of the most infamous scenes from FF8, and the point where everyone (well, mostly those with a working brain) gives up on the story of this game and just says "welll fuck it im gonna finish this up anyways". Turns out all the characters in your party were together when they were kids, on the same orphanage, which was owned by sorceress edea herself, the same you're going after, but they don't remember any of it till now. This moment went down as the most ridiculous plot twist in gaming history and with good reason. Why can't they remember all that? well, MAGIC DID IT. Why? well who knows, maybe the GFs they use make them forget, nobody knows it's never explained clearly. Just like most of the important things in this game.

After you manage to get ahold of yourself after laughing histerically for ours on end by reading all the ridiculous dialog that happens in this scene, you notice our heroes have decided to go and kill what can be considered as their own mother. Well that's nice isn't it? So there we go! We fight Seifer, which is now the sorceress' Knight and is also a huge pushover through the entirety of the game, and then we fight the sorceress. After we beat those two, Rinoa falls unconscious into a coma, and it's the end of disc 2!

A lot of ridiculous stuff happens between all that, like a concert where your characters play instruments, and well Squall treats Rinoa like the whore she is all the time in this disc. This is important to know because what comes next is comedy golden. See you later for Disc 3!

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Oct 16, 2011

New Remix up at OCRemix

I almost forgot to post about this but I got a new Remix published up at OCRemix. It's a megaman 9 Remix of the Concrete man theme, I did this remix for the Concrete Man EP, a sort of companion for the recently released Mega man 9 Album.


You can grab my remix over here, also check the complete EP from where it came from, and also check the Mega Man 9 album recently released by OCRemix.

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Oct 13, 2011

Revisiting Final Fantasy 8: Disc one

So after watching the AWESOME reviews of FF8 by Spoony I decided to revisit Final Fantasy 8 again and see if its as bad as I remember. Why you ask? well after playing through the horrible vomit-inducing shitfest and sorry excuse for an RPG called Final Fantasy 13 I realized that 8 would be a masterpiece now.

So Final Fantasy 8, the previous worse Final Fantasy in my book, actually had some stuff going for it. The graphics were amazing for its time, and the way they mixed CG Movies at key moments while you could control your character through the movie was pretty impressive. I also like the art direction in this game, it's pretty cohesive and the characters don't look too ridiculous. Also, Final Fantasy 8 had some amazing music in it. Some of the best songs in the whole series are in this game. The music just got worse from this one on.

aaand that's about it.

So here's my experience disc by disc. Today, Disc 1:

In the first disc you are introduced to one of the worst aspects of FF8, if not the worse. The Draw and Junction system. In previous Final Fantasies, you could obtain magic by buying it on a store, or from espers, by obtaining materia or simply learning it from different jobs. Here you obtain magic by "drawing" it from monsters. Which sounds interesting until you realize that you will spend hours on end just drawing magic from a monster to stock them.

You want to stock magic because you can "junction" it to your stats. By Junctioning magic to stats you make the stats grow, so you want to have a lot of different types of magic, all stacked to 100, to get the most out of it. for at least 3 characters. Believe me, thats A LOT of drawing. Lots of hours just drawing and drawing from monsters. It's tedious as hell. (please watch this. That gentlemen, is final fantasy 8 in a nutshell. You can stop reading this and just watch that video)

After you get all the magic you want, you just save it there and never spend it. Yep that's right, you don't want to spend your magic because it will reduce your stats, which makes the point of obtaining it pretty useless. This game also has another fatal flaw, the monsters level as you do, so in this game, you DON'T WANT TO LEVEL UP. That's pretty backwards to everything we know about FF, right?

Since I know all the exploits you can do to this system, I can get amazingly powerful (which I did) without even ever fighting. Since I can obtain an ability that nullifies random encounters, the only fights I do are the mandatory bosses. I'm actually on the 4th disc right now, and I'm only level 18.

No other final fantasy allows this kind of bullshit. This is the most broken system of ANY RPG I've ever played. It's completely retarded that the best way to get powerful in this game is through a card minigame called triple triad than by fighting. That you want to AVOID fighting at all costs to maximize your returns.

Let me empathize this: the best way to play final fantasy 8, is by NOT FIGHTING, instead it's best to play a completely retarded card game to obtain the magic you need. Also, NEVER use the magic you obtain. Just limit break or attack the mobs all the time. It's useless to level up because the monsters will just level up with you.

You also get GFs which are the usual summons from Final Fantasy, but again, you don't want to use them except for special cases because you do more damage by just using your normal attacks anyway. The serve more as a meatshield than as a powerful attack.

Anyways that is all I have to say about the drawing/junctioning system but if you are still not convinced, please watch spoony's review. He explains in detail how broken this system is.

I got sidetracked, lets go back to Disc 1:

So after a rather impressive intro where we are led to think that Squall is actually a kickass character, we are introduced to two of the main Characters, Squall, the hero of the story, and Quistis, who has the hots for Squall and is also her instructor in this mercenary complex which is more like a japanese high school from the future.

Disc 1 is basically about introducing the main characters of the story. These are:

Squall, as I previously mentioned, the hero of the story, and one of the precursors of the emo movement. Seriously this guy is beyond annoying, but I gotta say that after replaying this shitfest my opinion on Squall has changed and I don't hate it that much now, because I realized that the poor guy is surrounded by idiots and a whore. I can now relate to him not caring about his teammates, and ignoring the huge whore that is Rinoa all the time. I would be pissed off if I was surrounded by dimwits and dumbasses.

Actually Squall isn't that much of an emo, he's more of an asshole, and yes he gets pretty emo at several points, but as I said he's more of an asshole most of the time, which I can relate.

Rinoa oh by all hells I hate this skank. This woman is a complete whore. Picture this: you are in a party minding your business and a girl you're obviously not attracted to comes to talk to you and the first thing she says is that she has the hots for you. Not only that but she forces you to dance with her. That my friends is what we call a whore.

Most annoying is that for some explainable reason all the dumbasses Squall has to hang out with are trying to force him to be with her. He even says so in a scene. Yeah, not to mention this girl is devoid of any personality other than wanting to bang Squall. Did I mention she had the hots for Squall and for another guy named Seifer at the same time? yeah... whore.

Quistis is Squall's instructor. At first she wanted to fuck with Squall REAL BAD. But then after Rinoa appeared and she saw she couldn't compete with that level of whoriness she just called it quits. We get almost no backstory on her so we don't care for her most of the time. I do pick her as a party member because well, compared to the rest, this is the less annoying character in the game and the only one that doesn't make me want to stab babies.

Zell.... oh Zell you little rascal. I so hate this idiot. This guy acts like a child and is ALSO devoid of any personality. If you ask me to describe this guy, all i can tell is that he wears silly shorts, likes to punch things and has the mind of an 8 year old kid.

Selphie is this final fantasy's mandatory jailbait. Contrary to all the other supporting cast, she does have a personality, and an annoying one at that.

Irvine what can I say about this guy. He's a cowboy stereotype, a complete pussy and always find new ways to dishonor the gun-wielders in final fantasy history. Also devoid of personality.

I guess the makers of this game wanted to focus on Squall and Rinoa's "Love Story" (I just laughed out loud at that concept) and thats why the supporting cast of this game feel like cardboard cutouts. I'm going to hell for this but hell, even Final Fantasy 13 at least TRIED to develop all their characters. Oh well.

So Disc one is about getting accustomed to the systems of this game, and meeting your team and the main villian, the sorceress. For some reason she wants to destroy the world (oh my what a surprise) and you are sent on a mission to stop her. She also has allied with Squall's school rival, Seifer, which also gets laid with Rinoa. more on that later.

Anyways in the mission Irvine pussies out, Quistis' almost fucks up her part and everything goes to shit. In the end Squall has to face the sorceress, and he gets STABBED IN THE CHEST BY A GIANT ICICLE. and we are left at that cliffhanger until Disc 2.

A lot of unimportant things happen, between the beginning of the story and that, but again, it's just filler. Except for the recurring dreams your party has about a guy named Laguna. And Laguna is the saving grace of this game.

More on that the next time, where I talk about my experience with disc 2.

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