Lathany

As ever, the usual suspects (Martin, Chris V, Chris F, Krys and me) gathered for the Final Fantasy music concert: Distant Worlds (my fourth as for everyone but Krys who wasn't at 2012).

We met, as usual, At Ask by Gloucester Road tube and, after food, headed over to the Royal Albert Hall.

I think that the songs and order of play were something like this:

FF various (including FFVII) - Title theme
FFVII - "Victory Theme" (nine seconds!)
FFXV - ? Apocalypsis Noctis?
FFXIV - "Dragonsong"
FFXV - ? Somnus?
FFXIV - "Answers"
FFIX - "Festival of the Hunt"
FFVI - "Dancing Mad"
FFX - "Suteki Da Ne" (Tidus/Yuna song)

(I'm not at all sure about the FFXV songs, but those are the two I've found mention of on line.)

In the interval Martin and I went off to purchased ice cream and water.



The second half was all FFVII until the last two - post-end songs.

FFVII (remake) - Trailer
FFVII - "Opening / Bombing Mission"
FFVII/Advent Children - "JENOVA Complete"
FFVII - "Main Theme of Final Fantasy VII"
FFVII - "Aerith's Theme"
FFVII - "Cosmo Canyon"
FFVII - "Chocobo theme"
FFVII - "One-Winged Angel"
FFVII - "JENOVA"

Main FF theme

FFX - "Zanarkand"
FFV: Fighting music (it might have been "Clash on the Big Bridge")

It was a good night for me as I'm a huge FFVII fan. I enjoyed all the second half, with particular mention to the Main Theme, Bombing Mission and JENOVA. I have hopes that one day they'll play "Temple of the Ancients"; it's a bit obscure, but occasionally they do play little runs of the less know pieces in sets of three (they didn't do it this time, but did in 2017). From the first half, I particularly enjoyed Dragonsong, the Title theme and Festival of the Hunt. I did wonder, though, whether there were any fans from FFVIII out there (not to mention FFXIII, FFIV and FFXII, although FFVIII is the biggest hit of that lot) as they didn't have a single piece of music from it (I think, for the first time).

Overall, an excellent event.

A fairly quiet work day and then some Final Fantasy XIV in the evening with Chris F, Alistair and John.

We did a couple of optional dungeons and then ten levels of Palace of the Dead.



This is one of the more interesting screenshots I took.

This is Carter - chosen for me by bateleur and the twins.



She's named after a The Secret World character.

Today has been a good day. Christmas dinner all came together as hoped, I've been playing my new Final Fantasy CD of battle music (with thanks to quisalan) and I've been for a walk. I'm a bit headachey now - but it was worth the cocktails.

Half-term has been peaceful as the duo are in Royston and Cambridge (due back today). However, it has also been busy. Friday night, following a quick dinner of rather fine Hawaiian pancakes at My Old Dutch with ao_lai, I went to the Distant Worlds concert at the Royal Albert Hall with chrestomancy, chrisvenus and ao_lai.

( Much Final Fantasy Music )

Since I last posted, I completed The Blackwell Deception, which is the fourth in the Blackwell series from Wadjet Eye Games. The Blackwell series are point-and-click games about helping ghosts that fall more into the "mystery" category than "horror". They are good for a number of reasons - decent puzzles (without silly object combinations), complex characters and interesting stories. I played the first three games at the start of this year, found the first two good, but on the short side and then really enjoyed the third. This fourth game is of a decent length (like the third one) and a rather interesting plot. There are plenty of ghosts to help, as well as some advance of the grand plot which has been going since the start (or, strictly speaking, since the second game). I really enjoyed Deception and was smug when I completed it without having to refer to a walkthrough. Recommended to anyone who likes point-and-clicks.

Now that LoveFilms have a reached an agreement with Universal Pictures, we finally got to hire and watch Kick-Ass. I was surprised and pleased to see it lived up to all its hype. Great film, lovely action sequences and a good cast - in particular there was a wonderful performance from Chloë Grace Moretz as Hit-Girl.

With the duo away, huggyrei and telpher came over yesterday to play Magic. I didn't enjoy it as much this year as I have done previously. Mainly because I had an unusually high number of bad draws when I had all lands or none (telpher similarly suffered). While the game sometimes goes that way, I only play once a year and so really noticed it. The set itself was fine (Pack rats was banned), although both bateleur and telpher had difficulty putting a playable deck together due to the guilds (which use five of the ten colour pairs).

Today I've been thinking about various family birthdays and Christmas shopping. I like this time of year, particularly when I don't leave all the shopping to the last minute.

Note: Updated to reflect further information about the concert

Yesterday, during a pause in the finale of chrestomancy's Final Fantasy Tribute Game, we were pottering around You Tube and found this.


Vincent and Yuffie is pretty good too.

The GameFAQs "game of the decade" finished today (early this morning); you may remember me blogging about it back in September. The winner was Zelda: Majora's Mask which I've never played. I had a smallish sulk that Final Fantasy X didn't win, but was very pleased with my ability to predict winners otherwise - I came in the 93 percentile of the contest. In terms of the games I nominated, FFX was knocked out in the semis (by Z:MM), Portal made it to the last 16 (knocked out by Resident Evil 4) and nothing else made much of a showing.

We're almost ready for Xmas and the twins are more than ready. Bea even tidied the lounge the moment I suggested it needed doing (although Ryan hasn't done his bit yet). It helps that she's mostly recovered from yesterday's plague (although bateleur is still under the weather and I have a headache).

Of interest only to a few of you - I've completed Dirge of Cerberus. This is something of an achievement for me as I'm not a First-Person Shooter player by any means.

I found I enjoyed it and it stuck reasonably well to the spirit of Final Fantasy VII. It was nice to see all the original party members too (Advent Children style), although some appearances were extremely brief. The plot was OK, the system was playable and the boss fights were varied. I also liked the small bit in which I played someone else.

I assume that the pot has some sort of gift in it.

I have now finished cleaning the kitchen thoroughly. I wanted to do that before all the Christmas cooking started as it really did need it. It'll probably need it again after Christmas is over - but I'll deal with that when it comes.

I usually play an old game on the lead-up to Xmas. Two years ago it was Diablo II. Last year I'm more hazy about, but I think it was Baldur's Gate II. This year it's Final Fantasy VII on the PS3. It's still a really beautiful game, despite being over a decade old, because of all the hand-drawn scenes which have never - in my opinion - quite been equalled by the more recent FFs. I've got to the end of disc one and the final scene still makes me cry. That said, finding Seto also still makes me cry.

It feels wrong to be rude about a Final Fantasy game but this one deserves it. Having finished it last night I was left disappointed by the overall experience.

There were some good things; I thought that the Hunts were an excellent idea, the scenery was pretty and some of the fights were pretty interesting (Demon Wall - for example). However it was well below standard in many other ways. I found the characters dull, the character development practically non-existent and the main character in particular began and remained as just some guy. Balthier was all right, I guess, but he was pretty much the only one.

The plot was linear and lacking in suspense. It quite evidently wanted to be Star Wars (a random quote from the end was "He's our only hope") and the Strahl was clearly the Millennium Falcon in disguise. A couple of times it looked like the Judges were going to go all interesting... but they didn't. There was no mystery to it and it was difficult to care about the good guys or hate the bad ones. Plus it's much too long - I mean the core game is much too long (side stuff can be as long as you please). Oh, and the music was unremarkable (I think that only Lowtown stood out for me at all).

( A bit more detail with medium spoilers and comparisons to earlier FFs )

All in all, it's not that bad a game. Had it been recommended to me with a different title (making it comparable with Wild Arms 3 or Star Ocean 3) then I would have been pleased with it and recommended it. Unfortunately, I expect far more from the FF label than that.

I expected FFXII to be my favourite game of 2007. It isn't. Shadow Hearts II was better, Dreamfall was better and we're only in May. But... if you don't have specific expectations of anything called Final Fantasy and want a roleplaying game you'll probably enjoy it.

( C is for Cow and D is for Dog )

( E is for Ernest and F is for Final Fantasy )

( G is for Green and H is for Hand wash )

Back to packing, I guess.