Incoherent Thoughts

Finished Final Fantasy II.. my second time. I was in a bit more hurry than I would've liked, though, as my copy of Crisis Core arrived in the mail today, and I was itching to get to play it. So I skipped further playing around with the Arcane Sanctuary, and just beat my way through Jade Passage and Pandemonium...one thing I don't like about that game is that the Emperor is a total joke for a final boss. Doesn't hit nearly hard enough.

( Arcane Sanctuary )

So, since I finished FF2, I started on FF7 Crisis Core, just like I thought to do. For once. xD; What struck me immediately is that I might have made a mistake in getting the English version. The voices really bug me. I love Angeal's Japanese voice, it fits him so well. And infinitely better than the English one, I think. The shock of realizing that the voice in the beginning is his was...not pleasant. And Sephiroth's English voice is, as usual, quite horrid. Not to mention that jarring effect in my head whenever the English!Zack opens his mouth... I'm just way too used to the Japanese!Zack.
Now I'm really hoping for an International version. Even if they don't release one (the odds of that just came up a while ago though, with FF7DC International..), I'll get it in Japanese anyway. I doubt I could take playing through Crisis Core in English more than once. .__.

Other than the voices.. I'm not surprised with all the hype, but the game is really good. Addicting, with all those bite-sized missions. Gives the 'just one more..' effect.
Also considering how I haven't played other PSP games than FF remakes and ports on it (you know, plus Lumines), the graphics were a bit of a shock, no matter how many times I've seen screenshots of it. That thing looks amazing! My hopes for FF Agito XIII just went up a notch. =D

I really can't concentrate, can I. I was reading the Anniversary Ultimania 2 and suddenly I found myself playing Final Fantasy II. =D; I did manage to finish the section on FF2 before starting to play, at least I can say that much.
Well, that's one more game with an unfinished save file floating around. Played from the beginning (if you remember, I got the PSP version but hadn't started it until now) to Kashuan Keep. More than eight hours, I trained way too much. By the way, funnily enough Kashuan Keep is Castle Kashuan in Japanese. Hmph. No wonder it didn't make any sense, not having anything but a random keep from Kashuan accessible. It turns out the 'keep' is actually the royal castle, now overrun by monsters...
(I suddenly feel the lack of FF2 icons. Have an FF1 one instead)

I sure hope I don't get so distracted while reading the FF3 section (if I do, I might just start a new game on that, too). All the time while reading the FF1 and FF2 sections, my mind came up with these magnificent views of what places would look like with better graphics, based on the descriptions. And 'city of dreams', the biggest country in the world? Simply must house Alexander, right? =D And Crescent Lake, the still waters and the sages and all, I get this Siren-ish feeling.. well, all speculation of course, but it's really interesting, in a way.

I sure spent an exciting night in my dreams last night. I followed the story of a certain L.A.O. (strangely enough, it was pronounced O.L.A. But I 'saw' it written, too, and it was written L.A.O... The 'A' stood for Alis and 'O' for Olsen, although I can't for the life of me remember what her first name was), who was some sort of a secret agent/warrior in training... There was a proper story progression and all, starting from a relatively normal day at the academy, to a sudden field trip that turned into a full-blown chase through the city (some enemy showed up) and an eventual discovery of its reason (an accident during a lab work that had resulted in a new life form - a kind of a being with supernatural powers - developing inside the blood of this L.A.O. person. It got named 'Alis', according to her middle name. The enemies had gotten wind of it first though, and came after her) and an ending with a 'to be continued..' feeling. And yes, all in third person, I was just an observer following this story. Kinda felt like I do when reading books.
I love my dreams, have I mentioned that? xD

Wrote profiles (or at least their beginnings) for all the remaining FF2 characters yesterday.. Although I had to add several to the character list and I'm not too certain if they used the same names in the English version. 'Filip' doesn't sound exactly right..? (Ricard Highwind's friend, father of Kain) Will have to check when I get around to playing FF2 again, for now it'll just have to stay like that.
They sent my copy of The World Ends With You (and FF2 PSP) yesterday. Yay! Shouldn't take long to receive them, they're coming from Canada. Quite unsurprisingly, it was cheaper than buying them from Finland, or even other countries in Europe. Even with the shipping costs.

Now I'm off to watch Vampire Knight epi 5. That day of the week again. =D

Damn Zeromus. You didn't give me this much trouble in the GBA version. D: I tried to beat FF4 DS to get it over with, but noo... Of course Zeromus wouldn't let me do that. My doom ended up being that strong attack of his (sorry, forgot the name. I was too busy issuing commands to read the messages) followed almost immediately by Meteor. And of course Kain had 0 MP due to Zeromus being overzealous with using Aspir, so even Phoenix didn't kick in.
Lunar Subterrane and Lunar Core ended up being relatively easy. Levels 80-84 when I last checked, and I guess the same levels in my latest save since I hardly fought anything on the way down. Just one Behemoth that surprised me (it ended up being easier to kill it than to escape from it) and one of Zemus Mind and Zemus Breath each, since I didn't yet have those in the bestiary.
The cutscenes? Once again blew my mind away. As well as the Lunar Core. Am I completely off the mark or was that a gigantic crystal? It's hard to believe this is on the 'underpowered' DS. Totally looking forward to the ending, that should be amazing. =D

Wrote a couple FF2 character profiles and the start of their summaries. Need to do more of them.. I guess it would be easier if I'd played it recently, but I'm getting the PSP version this month so don't really feel like starting another playthrough on the GBA version. Plus, you know, enough games to finish already... Anyway, might try writing profiles for Minwu and other temporary party characters today, the 20th Anniversary Ultimania Character File is insanely useful in something like that. It's part of the reason why I got it. :P

Sometime in the past couple days, the trees have gotten leaves.