My Free Final Fantasy XI Experience

I am a huge fan of RPGs (Role Playing Games) - and absolutely love the Final Fantasy series. That said, I am conversely not a fan of MMORPGs. (Massive Multiplayer Online RPGs) I just don't like the concept of continuing to pay for a game over time, and also dislike the idea that such a purchases would become useless after I'm unwilling to keep paying for it, or time moves on and the company no longer supports it. Like many Final Fantasy fans, I just skipped over FF11 - hating that it was even included in the numbered series. MMORPGs and me just don't get along.

So, anyway, that was my general opinion of MMORPGs at the time, and more or less still is - but I've become more willing to give these games a chance, especially when they are offering the game to me for free. I tried World of Warcraft on it's free trial period and found it fun, but ultimately found little reward in constantly leveling up. Now I'm trying Final Fantasy 11 - and I have to say I am enjoying the experience. Like the World of Warcraft there is also a lot of leveling up, but so far it feels like it still has a point to it. Perhaps that's just because it has the famous Final Fantasy logo, and instantly inspires more good will to it than other fictional MMORPG realms.

I thought I'd tell you about my experience so far trying this game out. For starters - this game is horribly hard to download and get into. I clicked on their website's Free Demo and went through and downloaded the all the instillation and software. I had to do it through my Safari Browser to get it working, but it all got downloaded to my computer. The PlayOnline screen came up and I happily went to register myself so I could play the game. First problem - during Registration it said it needed a Registration Code. I had not yet been given such a code, and it seemed (becuase of it's name) that I should perhaps get this code AFTER registering. But, nope, you absolutely need the Registration code to get in. So..... What Registration Code? I looked at their website, and found a link that said Registration Code - but it only was detailing information about people who bought the game and who where adding Expansions. I got quite frustrated with this, checking my email, my spam filter, everything - and not getting any answers about how I'm suppose to get the Registration code. You'd think you'd be directed to such an essential thing when downloading the demo - but, nope, you're left alone to figure it out. PlayOnline's FAQ wasn't much help either, and eventually I just had to email a request for help. Luckily, before they emailed back the next day, I found what I needed through a search on Google. Seriously - I needed to Google this darn Registration Code, even though I was combing through the actual website holding the code hostage! For anyone attempting to try the free demo, here's a link to the Registration Code. This really should be simpler.

Second problem - you have to download even more of the game, something like over 10000 files; it it took 10 hours to do this. It really must be the Final Fantasy logo, because I continued to trek along. I went to sleep and the next morning it was downloaded.

After that entire un-user friendly experience, I finally got logged it to Final Fantasy 11 and dove right into the game. I chose to be a male Elf, Red Mage. He pretty much looks like this.

I named my character Andolf and began my adventure! The graphics are quite nice, though a bit dated nowadays. My first mission in this game - learning the controls! This experience could not be any less user friendly. I got how to move the character with the mouse, and controlling the camera through the directional buttons. I wanted to look through the city, but for the life of me I could not find out how to access the Map. The introductory NPCs (Non Playable Characters) where absolutely no help, only suggesting I use my map, accessed from the main menu. What button do I press for the main menu? The letter M, or any other number or letter key, isn't it - as that's all used for text. I literally was attempting to find this button by pressing all the buttons - yet to no avail. I NEEDED HELP! Luckily I found another player catching fishes next to the bridge. I asked how you accessed the main menu. It's essentially on the Keypad on the far Right Side of the Keyboard - press the "-", for Minus Key, to display the main menu. Then I found myself unable to run, and again had to ask for help. Luckily the person explained that this dash button, "/" would fix this. This person was very helpful, and I simply would have been left there crying if not for them.

Now a master of my controls I set out on my adventure. As luck would have it, the next introductory NPC was much more helpful, explaining many of the elements of combat. I've reached Level 4 and have since bought myself a new hat. I plan on setting out north of the town to fight some stronger enemies.

Bottom Line

That's about all I've done so far. I gotta say, for my first day at this, I'm finding this game much more fun than I thought it would be. The combat is a little hard to get use to at first, but after killing a few Giant Wasps - I feel a tremendous amount of pride at being able to finally get into this game.

I'm probably not going to buy this game, but I can definitely see this being a very rewarding MMORPG experience. I'd definitely choose it over World of Warcraft. I have 13 more days to play this game - so I'm sure I'll have gotten my fill of it by then. This does redeem the concept of MMORPGs in my mind, though. I was able to successfully communicate with a person, kill a few wasps, and bought myself a hat. A very exciting day indeed!

Final Fantasy XIV

This makes me wonder about the next Final Fantasy MMORPG - which has already been selected as FF14. I know, again in the numbered series - Good grief! I think it's just so they can have another development team work on FF15 and have less of a gap between sequels. As far as the game it's self goes, perhaps I'll try the game's free demo too. Maybe it will be more user friendly. I can only hope.

Final Fantasy XIII Release Date and Developer Commentary

Final Fantasy 13 is a game I, like many other players, am highly anticipating it's upcoming release. North America finally got a firm release date of March 10th 2010. I at first thought it was going to be here for Christmas, but then heard January as a date - and now it's three whole months away. It will be worth it, though, from all indications.

Square-Enix released a video with developer's comments on the game. I was sort of disappointed with the announcer they had in the video - as he boldly proclaimed Final Fantasy 13 to be the most anticipated gaming experience of all time. Way to jinx the whole project, buddy. Plus, that makes Square look arrogant as heck. Yet - FF has the long standing tradition of meeting those lofty expectations. Let's hope they do well here too.

Video Games | Final Fantasy XIII | Dynasty Doc HD

XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii

Who is Chameleon Boy Posing As?

The recent issue of Adventure Comics, issue #3, had a revelation at the end of it's Legion of Super Heroes back-up tale. The villain of the story revealed that it's not just the Legion of Super-Heroes who have Espionage Squad members hiding in the past. We've seen revelations of this sort all ready, like with Starman, Sensor, Karate Kid, and Tellus. Many of these Legionnaires have been hiding among the DCU, slowly being revealed. Karate Kid was the first, dressed up as a mind controlled villain until freed by the JLA. Tellus was trapped in a government fish tank until rescued by The Guardian and the Science Police. The Science Police of Metropolis have also been infiltrated with Sensor posing as an officer.

Now, this suddenly made me begin thinking - this must mean Chameleon Boy (the most famous member of the Espionage Squad) must be hiding as someone in the past, i.e. the current DCU.

It seems so obvious that must be the case, I'm afraid I just wasn't thinking of it. Chameleon has been very suspiciously absent from Geoff John's revival of Legion of Super-Heroes, even having another Shape Shifter taking his place on the team. Add this to the excitement and success Marvel had with the Skrull Invasion mini-series, I'd think DC would be stupid to not work in, or already plan, a really surprising and shocking revelation of who Chameleon is hiding as.

I tried to think of who I'd suspect. There have been a lot of changes in the DCU as of late, so there's tons of characters to suspect. I think, in figuring out who Cham could be, you'd have to figure he'd be in a key location or around someone important. Also, unlike the Skrulls, if anyone has been replaced, they certainly haven't been killed, since Chameleon is a hero.

So, who do I think it could possibly be?

I think Chameleon is posing as Mitch, the coffee shop guy featured in issues of Superman. This relatively obscure character was recently introduced as a friend for Mon-El to talk to. He apparently makes great coffee, and James Robinson particularly took time to both introduce this character and have him become friends with Mon-El. Mon-El is destined to become a member of the Legion of Super-Heroes - so the Legion Espionage Squad might have a vested interest in being close to Mon-El and potentially steering him in the right direction.

That's who I'm figuring. If you have any suggestions, leave a message and tell me who you think Chameleon Boy could be.

Gatchaman and Alex Ross

Learning about the characters due to appear i Tatsunoko vs Capcom - I got interested in seeing for myself what Gatchaman is all about. The full name of the series is Science Ninja Team Gatchaman (科学忍者隊ガッチャマンKagaku Ninjatai Gatchaman). You can check out some of the episodes through Netflix. The Animation style of the series is truly praise worthy - with a level of detail in faces and atmosphere not even seen in Anime today. The DVD sets are available, showing the series in it's original and unedited condition, both dubbed and subtitled. Some people might know the series by other names, like "Battle for the Planets" and "G-Force" when they where ported over to America through the decades.

The person you should thank for getting the real original Gatchaman brought to America is Comic Artist Alex Ross. He was apparently a big fan of Battle of the Planets and wanted to do a piece based on the property. His interest in the series caught the eye of the license holder - and a series of Battle of the Planets comics and art were produced. Ross' art also appears in the unedited DVDs.

Here's some of the pieces Ross created, and also an interview I found on Youtube detailing how he got involved in the series. Also below is the opening of the series.

Part 1 of the Alex Ross Gatchaman Interview

Part 2 of the Alex Ross Gatchaman Interview

The Opening of Gatchaman

Comic Review: X-Factor #50

I've been a long time fan of Peter David's writing. Before I even realised he was actually writing X-Factor issues I was getting, I was already reading his prolific line of Star Trek novels. Of course, once I realized he was a comic writer, I quickly dove into back issues of the Hulk - and later reading the adventures of Captain Marvel. But, I stopped reading his work after that. See, during the Bush Administration I quickly found out how liberal he is. (I know, it wasn't exactly a secret - but I was young and just didn't catch onto those things) Basically, it got old hearing about how horrible Bush was. (This is why he was elected twice, because he came out very much as the underdog) So when Captain Marvel got canceled I wasn't exactly in a rush to pick up PAD's next project - Madrox (the Multiple Man), and later X-Factor.

Now X-Factor has reached it's 50th issue, and while not gaining as many readers as Marvel may want - it sounds like it's still a stable and good title to bank on. After this issue the series is going back to it's original numbering at #200 - with a new and fresh direction for the series. It all sounded interesting, and I decided to jump onto the band wagon - beginning at issue #49. So, like many other people who might be trying X-Factor for the first time too - this issue #50 is an odd place to start reading the series.

All that said, I gotta say I wish I had stuck with Peter David's writing all along, as this series is great. Two issues in, where probably 4 years worth of plot-lines are being resolved - and I still got pretty easily into the swing of things. Basic setting of this issue involved Madrox facing off against one of his rouge Duplicates, called Vortex. Madrox is in the future, inbetween Sentinel forces and a Summer's Mutant Rebellion - so a lot of stuff, that I honestly don't know everything about, is all happening. It can be quite confusing - but the centeral fight between Madrox and Vortex is easy enough to understand, and the fate of President Falcone has a nice beginning and end for even new readers jumping in. Layla Miller, the girl who "knows stuff" has grown up since the House of M mini-series and is now an adult. It's revealed Layla has a power no one else knew of - and there's a pretty big revelation about her character at the end here. (I won't spoil it)

Over all the issue was entertaining and good. It might not be the best place for new readers to jump into - but it's got me hooked. The real place to jump into X-Factor is issue #200, which this issue has a small preview of. The art simply looks great, and the redesigned costumes of the characters look very nice (despite Strong Guy being bald now). X-Factor is going to step back a little from the mutant world and become the Marvel Universe's quintessential detective agency - and their first case is very cleaver - to find the Invisible Woman, who has disappeared. This small preview of the next issue looks stunning, and I'm very much looking forward to it.

In a nut shell - try out this series. Maybe not with issue #50, but with issue #200. I really does make me wish I was reading the series all along.

Heroes Dying, Sounding the Call of a Crisis

In the first issue of James Robinson's run of Justice League of America, issue #38, we see D-List hero Blue Jay heroically try to warn the Justice League of an impending new menace. Blue Jay dies in this effort - but it made me recall all the other heroes who die trying to sound the call of an oncoming crisis. Wether they where successful in their warning or not, here are the ones I best remember.

These are the only ones I can readily think of off-hand. If you recall any other heroes who died trying to warn everyone of danger - then feel free to contribute and leave a message.

Blue Beetle (Ted Kord)

Ted famously gave his life in the opening preview issue of Infinite Crisis. Ted was trying to put the pieces together of an on-going mystery threatening the DCU. Despite his efforts nobody was actually listening to him. So, going it alone, he went to confront the mastermind who was working behind the scenes. It was non-other than Justice League backer Maxwell Lord, who was revealed to not only know every Super Hero's secret identities - but had high-jacked Batman's Brother Eye Satellite to create an army of OMAC Meta-Human Killers. Ted found all this out, and got a bullet right in his face for his trouble. His final defiant message "Rot in Hell, Max." was not lost on the readers. While Blue Beetle did die, his death helped signal the other heroes of the upcoming crisis, as Blue Beetle's shot-apart goggles managed to reach Batman and the Justice League. A lesson in not ignoring your friends when they need help.

Mr. America II (Trey Thompson)

In the pages of the newly relaunched Justice Society of America, Mr. America arrived at a murder scene to help the FBI. When they said they needed to notify the next of kin, Mr. America took off his mask and said they already knew, as it was his family who was killed.

So Mr. America went on the hunt for the killer, and found the origin of the threat - Vandal Savage, who was attempting to wipe out the blood-lines of all the heroes. Mr. America was then murdered, but before dying managed to crash through the sky-light of the JSA's meeting room, and die right on their table, giving them warning of the threat against them.

Oh, and as for trying to kill off the Mr. America blood-line, Trey's FBI partner, Jeffrey Graves, took over for his friend and serves in the JSA.

Flash (Barry Allen)

This is a weird one - where Flash did indeed give warnings to his friends and fellow heroes of the danger ahead - and did later die. I'm not positive wether that all happened at the same time - relatively speaking - given all the rips in time Flash was appearing in to give the news. But he did Warn people, and then died. So, does he count on this list?

Orion

Orion of the New Gods also heralded the end of things and died for his trouble. In the Final Crisis series, Orion washes up on the docks and dies, with the warning that "They" did not die, and that "He" was in all of them. Orion died for his trouble, but his dead body helped get the League on the case - only eventually to find out that Darkseid had indeed not died (along with all the other New Gods) and that he was indeed inside all of humanity - corrupting Earth and it's people from the inside out. Darkseid, evil, had won. With the heroes on the case, though, Darkseid's reign over Earth wasn't a long one.

Sgt Frog - Bad Dubbing

I just got my rented copy of Sgt Frog, Volume 1 in the mail today. Boy, I gotta say I am both elated and disappointed.

See, this series is great. Sgt Frog is actually called Keroro Gunsou. (Which means, you guessed it, "Frog Sergeant") Frog Like Aliens attempt to invade Earth - but fail miserably at it. Sgt Frog is captured by the Hinata family. Sgt Frog is abandoned by his fleet, and is forced to live with the Hinata family, where he quickly becomes like family. He's soon joined by his Platoon Subordinates, all of who have quirky details about their character.

Anyway - I watch the first episode. The subtitles go by pretty quickly, so it takes a little getting use to - and it doesn't help that Japanese Text (explained at the top of the screen) is appearing every few seconds. For someone not versed in Japanese, this gets a little hard to follow. Yet that's why God creased pause buttons! I know, not the easiest way to enjoy a show - but this seems worth it.

Now, usually when it's very hard to follow the subtitles, I naturally go to the dubbed audio - which usually simplifies things. Yet, here's where everything starts to really stink - the dubbed script is... simply horrible. You see, I watched the first episode in Japanese, and then went to hear it in English. Not only is the dialogue different - but it changes the nature of the characters. Sgt Frog is no longer the overly excited charming character he usually is - suddenly he's this conniving little sneak. Mind you, Sgt Frog is sometimes always planning to get back to trying to conquer the Earth - but that's very much in the background to his usually grateful nature to the Hinata family. He might complain about having to do chores - but he never seems ungrateful, and even seem elated to be called "Friend" by Fuyuki.

The best way I can explain how badly the dialogue is rewritten is this: it's like Shin-chan. When bringing it over to America, they found the potty humor, while gross - was still aimed at young kids, and might not satisfy an American audience. (And, trust me, these aren't jokes American kids are use to hearing.) So they decided, in addition to subbing the show, they would add in tons more gross humor more in tune with young adults in mind.

Now, that might be all well and good for Shin-Chan - who's target audience different when shipped overseas - but there is nothing wrong with the humor of Sgt Frog as is. We don't need added jokes. For example, the mother comes home. In Japanese she announces that her artist finished early. In the dubbed version she says something about him working quicker without pants. WHAT THE HELL?! Do we need that extra joke? It's damn insulting to the American fans, who might naturally want to hear the dialogue Dubbed - and not get an accurate translation!

I hear Funimation put out some tests of dubbing the show, to gauge fan reaction. They got in trouble for needlessly changing names - which angered many fans. While it's all well and good that they took those criticisms to heart - that doesn't mean fans also wanted a different script.

Dubbing means actually, simply, translating the voices. This isn't even a case of having difficulty trying to synch up the lip movements - this is having the characters say something completely different.

Suffice to say, I'm not going to follow the Anime. The Manga looks better and a damn bit more accurate. If you can deal with subtitles - then I urge you to give Sgt Frog a try. Otherwise, don't watch it. Your simply not getting the real Keroro Gunsou that the Japanese have enjoyed for so long.

Here's a video of the opening song. They also have a great Ending song called Afro Gunsou. Both are great and cute songs.

Sgt Frog Opening

Sgt Frog Ending