Well I'm going to be off for a while. I'm need some tinme to catch up on work and not failing sixth form. My AS results were kind of crap, so I've got to do some extra work and what not. What's really annoying is that the project in Art I've worked harder on than anything else in my life only got me a C, which then got pulled down to an E after the other half got a U. Then with Technology, the test pissed me to no end. That test was easy and it was the only test I've ever revised for in my life. Result? Worst grade I've ever got on a test ever. So AS results Engligh: B Art: E Technology: E Information Communication Technology: No AS grade (You only get an A level for it.) Also, in doing the math. I'd need to get an A grade at A2 to average art or tech into a D and a perfect score to get a C. Yeah. I have only myself to blame, I mean I never did any work. I'm annoyed at the fact that the things I did work hard on only got Cs. That is really annoying. Well I'm not going down without a fight, so we'll see just how strong I am. See you again someday, not like many people pay attention to me anyway.

~Zanos

First of all, if you've no idea about Final Fantasy, this may not interest you, second, if you haven't finished FF VII Crisis Core and or don't want spoilers, then look away now.

Eh hem

OH MY GODS! I mean seriously, squenix just tore out my heart and handed it to me! I mean I knew Zack was not going to make it out alive, but I wasn't expecting that! I thought Zack was gonna have some generic Death tbh, you know somone shoots him from behind with there dying motion while he's weak and that's the end of him. I did not expect to see him gunned down like that and then with the Infantry man standing over head, and for the first time hearing Zack scared as the gun barrel points at him, that was just heart breaking. What was most painful to watch was the DMW (Even though it was being as un helpful as ever). Watching Zack's mind deteriorate like that was horrible, losing memories of friends is just something that would kill me inside. What really did it though, was when the DMW broke in the final section with those three infantry men. That is the most saddest scene I have ever seen in a game ever. Watching Aerith on the right reel slipping up and down as Zack's mind shut down, I wanted to cry. Watching him trying to hold on to those last memories of Aerith as he was dieing, then the DMW whiting out, that was just so painful. Throughout the game, I gusse I got the imprseeion that Zack was just invincible, I never thought he could be broken like that. I gusse at some point, without realising it, I fell in love with him (Yeah I don't care what you think, I'm a geek and Lame to the max already.) I'm not going to review CC, i think it may be too biased towards the ending if I did. Well, thats the end of it. I'd like to hear someone elses opinion on CC's ending. I'm going to finish FF VII one of these days, and when I do, at the end of the credits, I'm gonna say: In loving memory of Zack Fair.

~Zanos

Game: Tales of Vesperia
Format: Xbox 360
By: Namco
Price:£45.00 (got mine at £40.00 though, woo launch day sales!)

I’d been really looking forward to this one; I mean really looking forward to this one. I have to say that the Tales series has become my favorite; Symphonia just did it for me. Now Vesperia is an entirely different kettle of fish, but just as charming.

So, first we start off in the royal imperial city Zaphias, where main character Yuri Lowell lives, he is an ex-imperial knight. Yuri quit due to the empire’s greedy and selfish nature. Anyway, someone has stolen the Aque Blastia from the fountain in the centre of the lower quarter and Yuri Goes to do something about it. Blastia are used to power everything in this game, they were created by an ancient civilization (surprise, surprise). They cannot be created with the current technology and must be excavated from ruins etc. Back to the story, Yuri chases down a thief to the royal quarter and breaks into his house only to have him escape. Continuing his pursuit his is captured and thrown in jail. While in jail a mysterious old man helps him escape. As he tries to get out of the castle he runs into a noble named Estellise who is being chased by the knights. Agreeing to help her escape the castle, she tells Yuri that she is trying to find Flynn, a member of the knights and Yuri’s childhood friend. He agrees to help her and together they escape the castle to find Flynn.

From the outset, Vesperia plays like a regular tales game. You have your standard attacks and can set 4 artes (Attack skills) onto the artes button and the 4 shortcuts on the right analogue stick. A welcome addition to the game is free run (bear in mind Abyss didn’t come out over hear, it’s the first console Tales I have to include free run) where by holding the left trigger down you can break out of the Linear Motion Battle System and run wherever the hell you like! To be honest, I don’t know why they’re sticking with LMBS, for the most part I found myself just holding down the left trigger for every battle. I mean they could take a leaf from Star Ocean 3’s book and just have default free run, SO3 works like a Tales game in semi-auto anyway but with free run. It got to the point where I was actually holding down the trigger on the map to walk around! Anyway, the big thing to talk about here is Overlimit. Working much like the Overlimit gauge from other tales game, Vesperia over powers it to ridiculous ends. You fill the gauge up by giving and receiving damage and then trigger a level 1-4 Overlimit using the D-pad, during which you can link artes and normal attacks continuously and use spells with no casting time. This can make the game ridiculously easy, (Rita’s Tidal Wave spam can just destroy any boss with ease.) or ridiculously infuriating because enemies keep interrupting your combos. Overlimit may seem broken to you, but it’s a necessity in some of the later boss fights, especially on unknown difficulty. This is my only complaint though, I actually quite like Overlimit and it makes you feel like you’re on equal footing with a boss by being able to dish out some violent pain on them (Pun not intended fans).

Like Symphonia, Vesperia is cell shaded and I think it looks great. If you’ve watched an artes exhibition on YouTube, I have to say that the internet does them no justice. Watching them on your own TV is a sight to behold; Rita’s Mystic Arte is absolutely gorgeous to watch in full quality. As usual, the characters portraits in the menu are done in anime style and skits make a welcome return, but now fully voice acted! The game also features a lot of good music by Motoi Sakuraba, notably Furnace of War and Fury Sparks. The opening theme song is Ring a Bell by Bonnie Pink which is one of the better game songs of heard as of recent.

I have to say I’m very impressed. Vesperia does a wonderful job of just being awesome. What does it for me is the characters, except Estelle. She’s terrible; I would so much rather have Raine or Mint. What she does to annoy me is not heal you, she would much rather spam attack magic or (if you turn all her offensive artes off) just attack the enemy regularly. Then when she does get round to healing you, it’s always the most ridiculous spell, like nurse because one person’s hurt. WTF!? I practically had to scream at Raine and Mint to use something other than first aid. The second thing that annoys me is her character, which is also partly Yuri’s fault. Periodically through the game, you always get the scene:
Estelle: What should I do?
Yuri: Decide for yourself
You can always see it coming that she’ll just stick with you, it annoys me so much and is a really bad scripting flaw in my opinion. The other characters, I love. Rita = Win, that attitude and “blah blah blah Tidal Wave!” just makes her rule. I also quite like Karol, out of everyone; he seems the most real person like. I recommend this, highly. You won’t find a better Tales experience in my opinion, not even Radiant Mythology.

3 Good points
Fierce battles, Blah Blah Blah Tidal Wave, Yuri’s infinite mystic arte combo, epic story this game is extreme to the max!
Characters that will really make you laugh a lot, I mean alot
Lots of bosses, I really appreciate the shear number of bosses and the nostalgic cameo bosses too.

3 Bad points
A bit hit and miss Overlimit, you’re only stagger proof at level 4 Overlimit
Rare materials. WTF!? Only 1 Rare Metal per playthrough!? WTF!? Chegal Fur is found in a drained lake that was only accessible for 3 seconds before the game ended!?
Estellise. I’m sorry but if there was someone like Raine to heal you properly then I could live with her but she’s just terrible

Overall
95%

...but would it kill you to leave a comment?

Don't get me wrong, I'm verry happy people are willing to watch me or my work, but atleast tell my why you have done either of those things!!! I'm not a verry confident artist and may jump to the conclusion that you're faving my stuff because you fave everything of the same topic. If you do that's fair enough, but in future don't do it with my work. If you like say for example Raine and just fave anything of her you see, don't do that to me unless you leave a comment with a legit reason, which isn't "I like Raine". I'd like to think there's an actuall reason someone likes what I've done

Secondly, If you can think of any constructive points I would love to hear them, not matter how harsh or jerk-like it sounds, that's how people improve!

Well yeah sorry bout the big rant but this really winds me up! Anyway If you've read this and think "I'm gonna go comment on everything now that I faved" (Yeah I know that's kinda arrogant) don't worry to much, what's passed is passed, just don't do it again please.

Sorry about all this people who do comment, but I'm sure someone can understand where I'm comming from. Well anyway I'm done

-Zanos

Game: Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4
Format: PS2
By: Square Enix, Atlus
Price: £19.99

This is actually the first Persona game I've played, and I must say it's very good. I'd become interested in it after playing the very epic SMT: Digital Devil Saga and seeing it for only £20 was pretty awesome. Anyway I picked up a copy (Which BTW comes with a free selection soundtrack!) and took it home expecting it to be similar to DDS. I was wrong, but not in a bad way.

The story is a suspenseful countryside murder mystery with multiple twists and turns in the plot. After moving into Inaba, the Protagonist (mute, with no name) quickly settles into the small town life, gaining friends at Yasogami High School. Shortly after his arrival, two people are found dead following a foggy night. It turns out that if you watch TV, at midnight, when it's raining you are rumored to be able to see your soulmate. However, people are actually seeing the murder victims on the "Midnight Channel" just before they die. The Protagonist reveals to his friends that he has the ability to enter television screens, and is able to bring them along, after almost falling in himself. In the TV world, they meet Teddie, who explains that the victims had been pushed into the TV, and that when the fog in the TV world disappeares, they are met by Shadows, representing their suppresed emotions. If the character in question rejects these emotions in denial, they are killed by their strengthened Shadow. Being as the Protagonist is awesome, he has no suppresed emotions and therefore gains his Persona (A demon type spirit living in the physical menifestation as a card). The Protagonist's friends find Shadows of theirselves too, but with the Protagonist's help, are able to defeat them, granting them their own Persona, and find they can enter the TV world on their own. The friends decide to form a team to solve the murder mystery.

Since SMT III: Nocturne the series has become well known for its "Press Turn" battle System (Look it up), Persona 4 has a similar system where by striking an enemy's weakness, the foe will be knocked down and you can take advantage of a successive "One More" attack (This applies to the enemy too). If all the enemies are knocked down, you can opt to engage in an "All-out Attack", where all the party characters engage the foe in a fairly hillarious smoke-cloud brawl. Each party member gains a Persona to use during battle, which level up with experience points and gain new abilities (These are independent of the protagonists EXP points however, as he can equip multiple Personas). Each Persona grants certain immunities, resistances, and weaknesses to the various type of physical and magical attacks meaning this is more of a game where you have to fight "Smart" more than "Tough". Also, alot of the game will see you dealing with friends and the school life of the main character. I actually remember getting way stressed out about the Protagonist's midterms (more than I ever did with my own exams) and how his friends and family saw him. I also got flustered when I had contradicting appointments such as football practice, drama club and Yukiko wanting to hang out with me. It's an interesting mix between an obviously fictional game and real life simulation, which is really what makes this game so good. It's seems that while your life is so normal, something like this could be happening somewhere and it's really sucked me into the story.

I also really like the style of this game. Everything from the text boxes to the "Thwack" that comes up in battle everytime Chie kicks something. It might be a PS2 game, but it is so beautiful, the world of Inaba just comes to life. Also the Anime style characters are so full of life and the Anime segment cut scenes are very well done. It's actually like watching an Anime to be fair. The music is also pretty good, the tracks are all short, but boy are they good. I can listen to some of the tracks for hours on end.

So, do I like Persona 4. YESSSSSSSS! I've done nothing but talk about it for a week. I seriously recomend it. One of the things that makes it most enjoyable for me is the characters and stroy. The way each character confronts there own personal demons and feelings is really an experience and then there's the whole "School Life" aspect of the game which usually ends up being hilarious (School camp springs to mind). This game is a big winner in my books and you can't call yourself an RPG fan if you think you'll pass up on this.

3 good points
Characters are so strong and liflike you'll actually care about them and want to save them (ahhh Kanji-Kun <3)
Battle system is so clever it adds a whole new layer of enjoyment
This game will make you laugh, get you angry and everthing in between

3 bad points
This game is a total noob killer, the SMT series has always been dificult
Managing time for social links and TV exploring can be overwhelming
The Protagonist's death causes game over. Particularly annoying are hama/mudo spells and "Protagonist is enraged, Protagonist attacks, Protagonist's attack is reflected, Protagonist criticals himself, Protagonist dies" Game over

Overall 96%