Gains and Losses

Well, the past several days have been quick and interesting. Well... kinda interesting. Life shuffles on like normal for most of us, but for several it either speeds by or just up and quits.

Before I start up the whole rant about my life and video games, I want to say that I send my condolences to the families of Bernie Mac and Isaac Hayes. This past weekend both of them died. Bernie was only 50, while Isaac Hayes was 65. It's a really bad thing to see great people passing on, but life does happen so we just have to grieve and move along. I liked both of them since I thought Bernie Mac was great in the movies he played roles in and was a funny comedian, and who didn't like the soul-singing star who played Chef in South Park? It's just a sad loss of two men who had years ahead of them.

With that done, let us move on to someone more personal: me. For me the week went by fast and my main obsession was Final Fantasy V Advance. Yesterday I finally beat the game, after six hours of ABP-grinding near the only Save Point in the Cleft of Dimension's Void. Gaining anywhere from 26 to 30 and sometimes 199 ABP - when you're normally lucky to get 6 ~ 8 - was awesome so I took it upon myself to master every class except Necromancer (which I don't have yet) and Mime (which functions almost exactly like Freelancer).

With my team completely beefed up I went on in and beat the crap out of Exdeath and Neo Exdeath. I had forgotten not only how easy he was (when you have all your classes mastered), but how moving the final cutscenes were. From what happens with Gilgamesh, to the appearance of the Dawn Warriors and the determined final attack of your party, it just hit home and felt good to see something come out of it.

After he died and the credits rolled, I unlocked the Bonus Dungeon. Whoo. It's a pain in the ass. The bosses challenge you unlike anything the regular game provided, including Omega and Shinryuu. Bosses like the Archeodemon - who casts Death on himself if you attack with commands like !Rapid Fire and fully heals himself - and the Grand Aevis are tough and challenge you harshly even with 99% of your classes mastered. I'm on the Archeodemon now, but after yesterday's attempt at him I shut it off and installed Age of Empires 2.

Now, I love the game. The tons of different units and upgrades, the multiple resources and ways to acquire them, and the historial tales you play through are all fun. But not when you're about to beat a campaign mission you've spent close to an hour on and the game crashes on you. That turns that love to hate. Which is why I went straight to my next game: Super Robot Wars 3.

Known in Japan as Da 3 Ji Super Robot Taisen, this game is incredible. Japanland has gotten at least 20 different Super Robot Taisen (Wars) games, but America has only ever acquired two: SRT Original Generations 1 & 2. Problem is all the different series contained within each game, which makes licensing a bitch for the Japan companies because everyone of them wants a cut of the profit if the game is going over to America. This sucks because the games are fun as hell.

I obtained a ROM of the game and there is a full translation patch available on the Internet, so I started it back up. I had played it for several missions ages ago, but I wanted a new start. Oddly enough as I'm playing this I'm also ripping sprites of the mobile suits, the character portraits and the map icons for a reason even I don't know of yet. It makes for a fuller experience I suppose, and I can always use the sprites for a new Backlog banner.

So, for those of you who said "lol tl;dr", let me shorten it out:

1. Sucks that Bernie Mac and Isaac Hayes died.
2. I beat FFVA and I'm working on the Bonus Dungeon
3. Age of Empires 2 is fun, but not when it crashes on you.
4. Super Robot Wars is awesome and they should get it over here.

Until the next save point, Sobou's out.