GENRE: Digital Novel, Mystery, Strategy, Role-Playing
PLATFORM: Nintendo DS
CREDITS: 2007 Capcom Co., Ltd.

Description (from the Apollo Justice Official Website):
The defining battle for justice is about to begin! Star as a defense attorney, who must prove a seemingly guilty client’s innocence no matter how dire the circumstances may seem. The complete story of Phoenix Wright comes together as players explore both the past and the present of the idiosyncratic lawyer. Collect evidence, survey crime scenes, weed through inconsistent testimonies and overcome corrupt agendas to ensure that justice prevails!

Shop for Phoenix Wright: Artbooks and Manga, Video Game Shop, Music CDs, Fashion, Everything Else

The objectives and rules in Phoenix Wright, Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations have not changed since the second installation. In fact, it plays exactly like Phoenix Wright, Ace Attorney: Justice for All, a digital novel that oddly allows you, a defense lawyer, to investigate crime scenes so you can filch evidence for use against contradictory court testimonies. What really happens in Trials and Tribulations is that you delve into the histories of the people that have made so much of an impact in your career. If you had inadvertently made allies of your former nemeses in the previous Ace Attorney game, you will now need their powers of deduction to solve the most ground-breaking cases you’ll ever handle. In short: Trials and Tribulations’ force lies in its story.

This introduces a new D.A., the coffee addict Prosecutor Godot. The guy is completely shrouded in mystery and his existence, the way he digs up the past, will make you appreciate each facet. He knows everything about you and will be after your hide from day one. But don’t worry, his beef will unravel itself in the end. It won’t be an easy ride, though. The cases are more dramatic, profound and personal (to Phoenix Wright, that is). With these, you can only expect deeper character development. Meaning: more complex secrets to unveil, more emotional involvement. You will not only be playing Wright, you will also find yourself in the shoes of other people. As with the first and second Ace Attorney games, your mainstays are Prosecutor Miles Edgeworth, bungling detective Dick Gumshoe, the mystics Maya and Pearl Fey, and of course…that special ghost.

While the mechanics didn’t budge, the cases will confound you so much that you’d experience an exhilarating improvement in gameplay. The first case alone, which shows how Phoenix Wright and mentor Mia Fey were like five years before Wright became a defense lawyer, was so nerve-wracking that it kept me awake on days when I needed sleep most. The fifth case is the most intense. There was a point when I had already figured out what had transpired during the murder but my mind was flying in so many different directions. I was seeing a myriad of possibilities in all of the testimonies that I had become utterly frustrated with the linear flow of logic. It was like I could see a hole in the witness’ sentence A and could connect that to evidence B, C, and eventually D, but the game wanted me to pick on sentence Q and use evidence X, Y and Z on it. Not that I didn’t experience this in the preceding Ace Attorney titles, but to encounter the same problem in the fiercest battle of wits can make a player crazy. The challenge in the previous installments were to totally separate the facts from the supernatural, given that Wright is assisted by spirit mediums. This time around, the supernatural is completely intertwined with the facts that you will be locked in quite a trying series of “Objections!” Ironically, that was what I enjoyed so much. I was so engrossed in the heated debates that I didn’t even want to finish the game! I felt a little teary-eyed when I knew that I was nearing the conclusion.

Having played other characters, I almost wish they’d come up with a Mia Fey: Ace Attorney game. I want to see how her personal life fared before the tragedy struck. I want to see Miles Edgeworth when his guard is down, Franziska Von Karma without her trusty whip, and Detective Gumshoe get a love life. I suppose this is the reason why they came up with an Ace Attorney manga series, so Phoenix Wright junkies like myself can have more of his goofy brand of criminal justice and his goofier choice of friends. Still, I can’t help feeling sad that this is the end of the road for Attorney Phoenix Wright. His torch has been passed on to a new defense lawyer, Apollo Justice. I just know that though I will enjoy playing that one, too, I will surely miss “Feenie.” (I’m actually holding off on playing Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney, for the simple reason that I want to relish my last memory of Phoenix Wright before I move on.)

Any recommendations? Well, Trials and Tribulations is actually the best in the Phoenix Wright saga. But you’ll have to play the first and the second — in that order — before touching this because all the loose ends are wrapped up perfectly here.

I don’t think I’ll ever forget the series. No visual novel has ever gotten me so affected that it found its way into my ring tone folder, my dreams, my writing and my speech. So for those of you who think that dialogue-driven games are a crashing bore…

“Take that!”

PLAYER STATUS:
DIFFICULTY: Moderate
COMPLETION TIME: 20 hours
HIGHEST LEVEL ACHIEVED: N.A.
RATINGS: Gameplay 9; Battle N.A.; Story 10; Visuals 10; Characters 10; Sounds 10; Replay Value 7

Genre: Role Playing Game
Platform: Playstation
Credits: 1997 Sony Computer Entertainment, Contrail
Shop: Wild ARMs Game Shop, Artbooks, Manga and Strategy Guides, Toys and Accessories, DVD, Music

Cover Description:
The Metal Demons, legendary destroyers of Filgaia, are returning. Powerless, the Ancient Guardians call upon three to save their once green world—a warrior, who has the gunner’s gift that many fear; a princess, empowered by magic and an enchanted teardrop; and a rogue, who claims his sword is his word… but are his motives pure?

Genre: Adventure
Credits: 2003 Capcom Entertainment, Inc.
Shop: Monster Hunter Freedom Item Shop

Amazon.com Product Description:
In Monster Hunter: Freedom, non-stop adventures await you in the land of ferocious bloodthirsty beasts. Master a dynamic, ruthless game world and carve out a name for yourself, through immersive gameplay and action packed battles. New Felyne Kitchen - Hire feisty chefs to produce unique meals to help enhance your abilities.

Monster Hunter Freedom is a port of Monster Hunter G, a Capcom-made game involving, well, monster-hunting. While the game has no story to speak of, and a fairly high learning curve that involves a spasmic camera, once you get hooked on this game, it’s hard to ever stop.

It would be a lie to say that this is a perfect game, but there are just so many things going for it that those who learn to like the game easily overlook its numerous flaws in favor of one of enjoying one of the best games to ever come out for the PSP.

Story: Not Applicable

You are a monster hunter. You want to be the very best in your land. That’s pretty much it, and Capcom makes no attempt to make you feel like they’re weaving together an epic of a storyline.

That’s all good, really. Unlike similar monster-based games like Pokemon, this isn’t an RPG. This is an adventure game, as in lieu of leveling up, it’s your weapons and armor that get better and stronger.

Gameplay: A (9)

This score assumes you have gotten over the initial humps of the game, namely the quirky camera, and the tutorial missions. After you get past that, you find that this game offers so much in the way of gameplay.

First of all, instead of leveling up, you get better by getting better weapons and armor. To get better weapons and armor, you kill monsters. When you get better weapons and armor, you kill even stronger monsters. By killing these stronger monsters, you get even better weapons and armor to — you guessed it — kill much stronger monsters.

It’s an endless but fun cycle, and while I’m discussing it in broad strokes right now, the game is just addictive because of this feature. There are a myriad of ways to take down any given monster, whether you use a short sword and shield, a gigantic great sword, a long-reaching lance, a devastating hammer, or an explosive gun. Having this many options simply makes for a highly engaging game, and the fact that there’s some sort of variety even within the same weapon types really doesn’t help curb the addictiveness of the game.

As you go further in the game, it gets more and more challenging, and for instance, you’d feel stuck against, say, a fire-based monster. Naturally, you’d want to get a water-based weapon, but to do that, you need to kill a water-based monster a few times over. But then, you want to do it quickly, so you kill a thunder-based monster a few times to get a good thunder-based weapon, then you realize that to hasten that process, you need to get a fire-based weapon since the thunder-based monster is weak to fire. But of course, since you wanted to get a fire-based weapon, you have to kill… yep, a fire-based monster, which is what you’ve been trying to kill, to begin with.

The monsters of significance generally fall under one of two things: wyverns, and dragons. While there are only two dragons, there are a wide variety of wyverns, and they still look like dragons, although significantly smaller than them, and with no arms. Throughout stages, there are various other smaller monsters, and items to gather in key areas within a map. All of these yield even more items to work with for armors and weapons, or at the very least, supplies for healing, buffing up your attack power, and so forth.

Essentially, when you want to do a mission, you approach the Village Elder or the Guild Outpost, pick the mission you want to do, then try to accomplish it in a time limit, usually 50. Then, you get reward items and money if you complete the mission, and guild points, which allows you to choose more titles for your Guild Card, the higher the number of guild points you have is. Guild Cards are your way of identifying yourself to other MHF players when you link up with them via ad-hoc, which can prove to be a very fun experience. Obviously, the more missions you complete, the more new missions you can get to unlock.

There are item shops, as well as a shop that allows you to use the stuff you’ve accumulated to make new weapons and armor. You also have a farm that you visit regularly to get items from, and a kitchen at home run by Felynes; cat creatures who cook food for you in order to give you better stats and some skills for your next mission. You can also get skills from the armor you wear.

Given all this, the options for playing the game are limitless. On top of weapons, you even have flash bombs, sonic bombs, barrel bombs, and pit traps, which further add to the fun factor of this game once you get over the initial humps.

Graphics: A+ (10)

Lush scenery, vividly-detailed wyvern and dragons, noticeably different armors and weapons, all of these showcase the graphics powerhouse the PSP can be, with PS2-quality graphics that are second to only Tekken: Dark Resurrection, among all the games I’ve played thus far.

This game is loads of eye candy, as each of the different stages have a different feel, although the detail does present a challenge, particularly when the trees block your line of sight, and hinder you from seeing what a wyvern is up to. This is all part of what keeps the game from ever being too easy, and trains the player to operate the camera optimally while fighting at the same time.

My only gripe with the graphics is that unlike the Japanese version, the gore factor in the other non-Japanese versions have been noticeably toned down. That being said, when you hit a monster, blood doesn’t gush out as generously as it does in the Japanese version, which I find weird, since they didn’t hold back for Grand Theft Auto on the PSP, and in that game, you were killing people, not wyverns.

Music & Sound: B+ (8)

Limited music tracks, around one or two per stage, I believe, and maybe a couple of tracks once you’re fighting a boss. However, what keeps this score high is its sound effects, as every single hack, slash, shot, explosion, cry, and grunt have corresponding sound effects.

I especially love the way certain blades “sing”, the way Eternal Strife and Eternal Schism do when you slash with them. It’s just music to my ears.

This game’s sound effects are just great, and you can’t tire of them at all.

Replayability: A+ (10)

This game is a gift that keeps on giving. I have been playing for 210 hours already, and I haven’t even done half of all the missions yet. There’s practically no “ending” for the game, as killing every monster around isn’t enough since you want to start making weapons or armor out of their parts, which involves killing them more than just once. In the event you want a change of pace, you can even start over and choose a character of the opposite gender just to see how different the armors for that character would be.

Monster Hunter Freedom will keep you glued to it for hours, from the glorious moment you kill your first wyvern to the 100th time you slaughter a Red Fatalis dragon. This game is, without a doubt, worth shelling out hundreds of hours on.

Miscellaneous Pros And Cons:

- Decent loading times, but moving between different areas in a map requires loading, so moving from spot to spot can be annoying as you wait between 6-15 seconds per screen.

+ X-Link Kai makes this game even better, as you can finally go online via it.

- No online by default.

+ You can choose different voices for your character when making one, which is a nice touch.

- Spasmic camera can go first-person in the middle of heated battle, and requires you to constantly manipulate it with the L trigger and the d-pad. This gets especially annoying when trying to run away from a battle, as you have to turn the camera before moving, which might get you killed. Avoid Area 9 of the Forest and Hills stage at all costs when fighting a boss. The camera there is horrendous.

Overall: A (9)

This is not the perfect game, but this is arguably the best game on the PSP right now, with an addictive gameplay, loads of things to kill and collect, great graphics, and an awesome level of challenge, Monster Hunter Freedom is a must-have for any PSP owner out there. Quite simply, there is no reason to miss out on it for the system as it is, without a doubt, a gift that just keeps on giving.

You can’t go wrong with this. Highly recommended.

Player Status: Hunter Rank 5 (Out of 5)
Difficulty: Easy to learn, hard to master.
Completion Time: Not applicable.
Highest Level Achieved: Hunter Rank 5 (Out of 5.)

1997 were the good ol’ days when I was extremely easy to please when it comes to role-playing games. After all, I remember I had only played 2 RPGs during that year: Final Fantasy VII and Wild ARMs. Being a fighting game fan for most of my console-playing life, I never realized how fun it could be when you get introduced to puzzles, deep plots, battle systems, and astonishingly inspirational characters. I only have to thank Wild ARMs for introducing me into the console world of RPGs.

I wouldn’t really talk about graphics when it comes to this particular game. It was my first console RPG and I had nothing else to compare it to. All I knew was that it looked cute. Little pixies drawing swords and learning skills certainly made me happy enough to go through 40 to 60 hours of gameplay. Despite their cutesy image, I was still able to feel sadness at the loss that many of the characters have felt at several points in time. There were basically three protagonists: Rudy the outcast, Cecilia the princess, and Jack the rogue. What I loved most about the character design and storyline is that the focus isn’t concentrated on Rudy alone, even though he seems to be the one holding the title Wild ARMs. There is equal opportunity to get to know each and everyone of your party members. Not only that, even the supporting cast and villains (like Lady Harken, Zed, and the Earth Golem) have their own tragedies that could actually break somebody’s heart. Oh…did I forget mention Jack’s little rodent Han Pan, who is one of the most useful tools in treasure-hunting and puzzle-solving?

Speaking of tools, these little gadgets that your characters use outside battles are part of Wild Arms’ charm. Imagine being able to use radars, bombs, roller skates, grappling hooks, guitars cum enemy lures, clocks, and even little rodents for whatever needs you have in mind. No only that, during battle you can also change weapons and armors. I never really appreciated this feature until I’ve played other RPGs where the wrong weapon can get you killed, especially when that weapon happens to heal your adversaries.

The puzzles are what actually define Wild ARMs. The kind of challenge and sense of accomplishment I get after solving one really is the most incomparable feeling I’ve ever had in any game. Imagine, we had no access to the internet back then, so walkthroughs and FAQs are totally unheard of. What I do remember is that I had pulled a lot of hair trying to figure out why I kept running around in circles, but at least I had something to laugh about afterwards. The only bad memories I ever had of Wild ARMs were those times when palace guards kept chasing me, and when I had to chase orbs around mazes while using my skates. I just hate chase sequences. They make my heart feel like it wants to run out of my chest. But those moments aren’t even enough to quell my extreme like.

Music anyone? Of course, this is also one thing that makes for a memorable game. I don’t think I could ever forget that opening song with the beautiful guitar solo (I can actually hear two guitars before the track transforms into a full-blown orchestral piece, but what the heck) and that whistle that makes me think of a lone cowboy riding an old horse on a deserted road. This song compliments the touching anime opening. Be careful, though. For those who haven’t seen or heard it, I guarantee it could bring about goose bumps!

Player Status:
Difficulty: Moderate - Difficult
Completion Time: 40-60
Highest Level Achieved: 42 (for all party members)
Ratings: Gameplay 9; Battle 10; Story 9; Visuals 7; Characters 10; Sounds 10; Replay Value 8

Genre: Role Playing Game
Platform: Playstation 2
2006 Square Enix
Screenshots with permission from RPGFan.
Shop: Final Fantasy Games, Strategy Guides and Artbooks, Toys and Figures, DVD, Videos, Music

Amazon Product Description:
Two years after the fall of Dalmasca, the citizens are without guidance and direction. In the capital city of Rabanastre, the denizens gather and await the introduction of Archadia’s new consul. To Vaan, a young man living on the streets of Rabanastre, the Empire is a hated enemy who took the life of his brother, the only family he had left. In an effort to exact revenge, Vaan hatches a plot to break into the palace and steal from the occupying imperials. There, he gets more than he bargained for as he runs into Princess Ashe, the sole surviving heir to the Dalmascan throne. Together, the two will embark on an incredible journey through Ivalice, tracing the mysteries behind the Archadian Empire’s invasion. The choices they make will determine the very fate of the world. License board gives the player the ability to customize each character’s skills and abilities.

1. Completely new voiced cut-scenes added for the North American release
2. Gorgeous CG cinematics and cut-scenes in Dolby Pro Logic II combined with real-time graphics rivaling those of next-generation titles
3. Shocking plot twists take players on an unforgettable journey
4. Active Dimension Battle (ADB) system enables players to move seamlessly between exploration and combat
5. Highly customizable Gambit system allows complete control over character AI during battles

48 million years and centuries later, I’ve stopped procrastinating and sat down to write my comments about the last Final Fantasy installation. There is much to write as this is probably the most innovative Final Fantasies to date when it comes to gameplay. But first things first…

Story and Characters
If you’re one of the old timers who have played Final Fantasy Tactics in the 90s, you’re probably familiar with Ivalice. This is the setting in that game then and is the setting for this game now. Final Fantasy XII, however, concentrates on the war between the empires of Archadia and Rozzaria. The introductory full motion video starts off with a festive wedding in Rabanastre, with a young princess bride beaming at her dashing groom. The celebration is short-lived, as Rabanastre is besieged by invaders and the capital eventually falls. Two years later a group of Rabanastran rebels go underground and try to reclaim the glory that was once theirs.

Your party leader is Vaan, a little thief who steals from Archadian soldiers patrolling Rabanastre. He is supported by his girlfriend Penelo, the strong-willed Princess Ashe, the hot and incorrigible sky pirate Balthier and his exquisitely exotic bunny-girl partner Fran, and the devoted knight Basch. This is where my beef comes in. Vaan is a useless hero. In fact, you can remove him from the game and it will not affect the story at all. If you observe well enough, you’d notice that everything here revolves around the Princess Ashe and her quest to restore her kingdom. Which is why, despite her bland personality, she leads my main team. Everyone else, except for Vaan, is interesting. In fact, his dead brother is far more interesting than he ever will be. So you can probably understand my exasperation when my Princess Ashe finished all the sidequests and the grateful people would thank the “lad” for solving the cases.

Other scenes to look forward to are Balthier and Fran’s exchanges, which are laced with subtle sarcasm and charged with a lot of chemistry. And I must really say this: Balthier is one hot pirate. That British gentry accent (not cockney, which is more common to 18th century sailors) makes everything about him paradoxical…at first anyway.

Storywise, nothing here is of epic proportions. I don’t consider that a bad thing. I had grown rather bored of the usual save-the-world themes that are running rampant in multimedia storytelling. The game leaves a lot of loose ends, though, so you can tell that the essence of the plot relies heavily on the characters’ personalities.

Gameplay
I love the gambit system. It allows you to set who your party leader is while the rest of your team can be configured to do a series of actions by themselves. If you know how to work this, you can actually fall asleep and set your party’s AI on auto-leveling mode. The license board is another matter. A lot of gamers felt that it’s stupid to need a license in order to wear a certain accessory, armor, or weapon. I think it’s needed for game balancing. What I did not like about it is the fact that there’s very little room for specialization. I ended up with a lot of license points to spare while completing all of the characters’ boards. And since I am not one to consult a walkthrough on my first run, I had little Penelo be my guinea pig in discovering areas in the board.

Limit breaks here are called Quickenings and can be accessed when your MP reaches a certain level. Quickenings can be chained, if you press the right combintion of buttons in split seconds. They also have levels. The most difficult Quickenings, which would be at level 3, require quicker reflexes as the time to input the correct combination grows shorter.

I have no complaints about the monetary system, like a lot of gamers do. I mean, yes, the monsters do not drop money or gil, which is the currency for all FF games. It makes sense. Have you ever heard of a wild animal who waltzes around with a pouch full of money? Besides, this makes some of the skills, like Steal, a necessity.

I encountered a gameplay problem in my first seven hours. I felt like I was playing an MMORPG without the social interaction. Every time I finish a stage or before I enter a new dungeon, I always wind up leveling. For instance, I just finished this area called Feywood. Then I nearly get beaten to a pulp by the next boss (my second Quickening came up short). While barely surviving that, you’d think the next minor minions would be easy? Nope. Four mini-boss like monsters nearly tore my characters into pieces. Except, they’re not really mini-bosses. They were regular monsers! The fact that I have never seen the “Game Over” screen is something I can thank luck for. All that hacking, slashing and moving through the license boards get old after 50 hours. Unfortunately, the real meat of the game covers only 10 hours out of that.

Despite the welcome gameplay innovations, I didn’t feel the urge to perfect this game. I haven’t had the urge to perfect a Final Fantasy game since VII and VIII. Funny, but I never had this problem with any of the Suikoden series, not even the unpopular Suikoden IV.

Audiovisuals
As usual, the visuals were fantastic! Though you won’t see the old summons Shiva, Ifrit and Bahamut, among others, the Espers that replaced them are equally as stunning. Unfortunately, I find them pretty useless as they can be killed easily and your characters’ HPs tend to get higher than the Espers’ in the later levels. Nevertheless, aside from the FMVs, these dutifully rendered aides are worth watching out for.

Sounds are another matter. This is probably the only Final Fantasy installment that had the most disappointing roster of tracks. First because a lot of dungeons, cities, and fields employ the same background music. Second because they can lull you to sleep. I found myself wanting to doze off an hour after turning my PS2 on.

Overall
Final Fantasy XII is a good game. The basics for a good game are there: challenging gameplay, an intriguing cast of characters, and lovely visuals. All it actually needs is a little tweaking here and there and you can get a great game in your hands. Despite all its flaws, I recommend this game for those who are looking for ways to relax. Or at least, to tide you over till the next Suikoden or Persona game comes out.

PLAYER STATUS:
DIFFICULTY: Moderate - Difficult
COMPLETION TIME: 120 hours
HIGHEST LEVEL ACHIEVED: 70+
RATINGS: Gameplay 8; Battle 9; Story 7; Visuals 10; Characters 9; Sounds 7; Replay Value 6

Genre: Role Playing Game
Platform: Sony Playstation
2000 SquareSoft. Screenshots and images courtesy of Amazon.Com
Shop: Final Fantasy Games, Strategy Guides and Artbooks, Toys and Figures, DVD, Videos, Music

Cover Description:
Queen Brahne of Alexandria has begun using highly-advanced magical weapons to terrorize neighboring kingdoms. Her daughter, Princess Garnet, runs away from the castle and befriends a group of good-hearted bandits led by a skilled thief, Zidane, who intends to end the evil queen’s desire to dominate the world. Soon after embarking on their quest, they discover that the queen’s threats merely cover a far mor sinister plot. For the sake of mankind, Zidane and his friends must put an end to the Queen’s reign before she and the evil forces that accompany her can carry out the deadly plan.

FAQs / Guides:
Alexandria Book Guide by Skysenshi
Chocobo Hot & Cold by Thundersenshi
Ozma Guide by Thundersenshi

I just got my copy of the U.S. version two days ago because I was so excited I couldn’t wait for the game’s release on the 14th. I remember having to go through a lot of people, a lot of pain, lose a lot of money, and all that hassle, just so I could get this. Now I’m wondering if I was that desperate for this Y2000 FF5-FF6 remake.

Truly, nothing came more shocking to me than the sight of pixelated SD characters. I mean, I did see in Japanese previews that they would be in cutesy mode. But all I saw were the CG screen shots. I didn’t realize that their cutesy regular mode would be more pixelated than FF7’s cutesy modes. Before playing FF9, I replayed FF7, and the comparison was disturbing. I mean, FF7 is a three-year old game! And yet Cloud had smoother polygonal skin, while Zidane looks like a pixelated chimp from an FF6 sequel. I mean, I love FF6, and it’s actually my favorite FF in terms of plot, but we are in the 21st century! I think we all must move on graphics-wise. What holds me back from giving FF9 a ”2” on graphics is the fact that they have a lot of good FMVs.

Nobuo Uematsu is one of the best. However, I just can’t shake the fact that the intro of the battle theme sounds exactly like FF6’s battle theme intro. Again, as I stress on the fact that I love FF6, I guess I also need to stress on the importance of originality. Besides that little gripe, I’d say FF9 has one of the best soundtracks in PSX gaming history.

My request is just simple: I want my limit breaks back. At first I thought, ”Wow, they returned FF7’s limit breaks!” Then when I realized I couldn’t control when I want to use the limit break, which was especially frustrating during the 12-minute beast hunt in Disc 1, I struggled on the idea of whether I should sell the discs or just finish it for Final Fantasy’s sake. The gameplay as a whole is fine, but I saw all of it back in FF6, and in almost the same look, too. What’s more frustrating is the fact that most their special abilities, like Summons or Swd Atks, aren’t even useable during the first parts when you need them most. Add that to the fact that Zidane’s abilities are pretty useless. Thank heaven there’s still Freya’s Jump ability!

At least this might be FF9’s saving grace yet. The good thing about FF9 is that, unlike FF8’s haughty lead character, who’s bankability is obviously just based on his looks, FF9’s Zidane has been blessed with a pretty hilarious character who can keep you laughing for hours. The plot is also as exciting as FF6’s, which is something that I found missing in FF7 and FF8. I meant ”exciting” in the sense that, I can feel every character as the story progressed from disc to disc. They’re more human than FF7’s characters, and definitely more real than FF8. However, I would minus two points for lack of originality. As I said, this game, including the plot, is too much similar to FF6.

I loved FF6, but I never played it again after beating it. Since this game is 70% identical to FF6, I don’t think I’ll play it again either. The reason for this is that, first, it’s too simple — like Chrono Cross being played for the third time around. Second, it doesn’t have the same gameplay quality that the last two Final Fantasies had. Third, I don’t want to go back to that ”pauper phase” in disc 1, when I couldn’t sell any equipment due to the fact that I can’t upgrade as long as I’m learning the abilities I want to learn. Fourth, the challenge I’m looking for is not present. I don’t have the urge to perfect the game as I did with FF7 and FF8. Fifth, did I mention that the storyline is also nearly identical to that of Legend of Legaia? Terra? Mists? Hello? I know Legend of Legaia was such a tedious game, but this is ridiculous! Sixth, there just isn’t enough reason to make me play this game all over again.

Should you buy or should you just rent this game? Well, I suggest you borrow it from someone. That would be free. Or if you feel you’re sinister enough, you can probably have relatives from neighboring countries send you a pirated pre-release copy of this game.

One last thing, don’t take a 3-day leave off your work just to play this game, like I did. You’ll be losing more money that way. Frankly, the reason why I finished this game is because it’s a Final Fantasy game. That’s the same exact reason I used when I finished FF5.

Player Status:
Difficulty: Easy - Moderate
Completion Time: ?? hours
Highest Level Achieved: 60+
Ratings: Gameplay 8; Battle 8; Story 9; Visuals 10; Characters 10; Sounds 10; Replay Value 5