It makes me really sick, eventually what will happen is small independent gaming companies will sprout up that are mainly developers and just blow the main companies out of the water with one really good idea which is all it takes to be successful. Bethesda has surprised many, but I wonder just how long they will be able to keep up their momentemn. Kingdom Hearts III isn't coming now, so we may as well forget it. I have given up on that thought a long time ago and if they did do it now it would more than likely be so cliche that so many fans would mostly likely mail their copies back to Square with hate mail demanding a refund.

I'm sorry Kole, but we've already lost Bethesda. [cry] Have you seen TES Online? Talk about butchering the lore.
Considering that it's been a decade since the first KH has been released and we still haven't gotten a third game we may as well consider it dead. I doubt that Square has done any actual work on it anyways, and it's getting just to that point where it doesn't make sense to develop for the current gen consoles. :x


Spoiler'd this in case anyone has yet to finish this masterpiece of a game.

Oh my god! Really! I'm losing faith! I have only been playing Maplestory lately myself. I've accepted we won't be seeing Kingdom Hearts III probably ever. I watch when games come out for those sleeper titles... haven't seen any as of yet though. The Elder Scrolls Online... I knew it was going to happen eventually... oh well what can we do?

I think Final Fantasy Tactics overall was probably one of the most intricate tales ever woven in the entire series personally... I like how they stuffed it with many hidden scenes and secrets and characters that were extras. I really have enjoyed the game so much. It has such a high replay value that I kept the original Playstation One copy just so I could enjoy it in its most original form but I also have the copy for the PSP which is cool because it has animated sequences which were well done.

Did you see the trailer for Final Fantasy XV yet? It's on youtube -- it looks like an interesting CGI but that's about all you can say. I was talking to a guy earlier at a subway and he said that he mainly just goes on youtube and watches all of the cutscenes so he doesn't have to play through Enix's boring grinding... kind of makes sense actually to a dull battlesystem and game that dictates where you go and how do you battle to a T.

@Bellybutton - How do you hide spoilers again.... I don't know how to do that. It's ok... I wasn't aware of what I was doing.

The bastardization of our favorite game series is inevitable these days it seems. It's all about money money money. No one wants to take risks anymore. Square's in-house team hasn't developed a new IP since The Last Remnant.. and they have nothing to show for all the work they did with the Final Fantasy franchise and the KH franchise. ): meh.. funny how those games still make profit when it seems that no one wants them.

Seriously there was so much stuff to do in that game, and so many unlockable or unique classes, secret items (that you had to steal, ugh), and the deep dungeon was a neat idea. Having Tactics available on the PSP was a big draw for me.. I like that they reworked the script to make the plot more coherent. Don't get me wrong, I love me some, "LIFE IS SHORT. BURY. STEADY SWORD." [lol]
You are making me want to break out my PS for some Tactics, haha.

Yeah.. they don't have much to show for XIV yet.. the CGI work is indeed very nice. I looked at videos of alpha gameplay but I'm not sure how it works. I don't really enjoy the combat in most MMOs and right now XIV doesn't look very different.. but we will see. I still have some hope left in there, even if you don't. :P They really ought to make it more of a Sandbox MMO though, I'm tired of theme park MMOs and the standard fare.

Still playing Maple Story eh? :P I quit around the time of Miracle cubes and then got hacked sometime after that I think.

Bastardization is the perfect word for what the corporations have done to our gaming world. It's truly disgusting.
It will never be the same as we used to know it. Unfortunately in every industry money is the only thing that seems to matter anymore. I've given up... I enjoy playing the Tales series now more than anything. I was playing Tales of Grace F not long ago.. but I'm bad about starting games and getting them all the way to the end and then i never finish them... kind of shameful really..

I really enjoy the cutscenes on the PSP a lot. I think they were well done in the original art style. My other favorite character is Lady Agrias... I like her moves. She is awesome. I haven't beaten the version on the PSP yet... still taking my time and enjoying it. I'm saving it for when I go to Europe this summer in Italy and have nothing to do to keep me somewhat occupied.

CGIs are only going to carry a game so far, they should realize it otherwise they should just get into the business of making movies and leave it at that. I will not even give Final fantasy XIV a try... you can only polish a turd... then what?

Yea I still play maple story... its fun to watch it continuously evolve. Sometimes for the good sometimes for the not so good. They are getting ready to end the Cygnus Knights... which means they will all be able to get to level 200 now.

I can be the same way with games. It takes me forever to finish one but I will start like, 3 at the same time. Every year I look forward to less and less games but we will always have classics to look forward to playing. *Nod*
I for one am ready for the second great gaming crash. D8

Yeah, I am glad they kept the art style that they used for all the portraits and whatnot. It has a lot of charm. Agrias is awesome. I wonder what became of her.. and all my other party members like Orlandu, Rafa, Malak.. even Cloud.
That's cool. :) I hope you have a good time in Europe.

Well.. they tried that, and look how well their movies did. [sarcasm]

That is cool about the Cygnus Knights. Glad to see that there are many more reasons to have one, with UAs and whatnot.

I'm excited for the new Animal Crossing too!
And what color DS did you get? 8D

I think I may log on to Maplestory for about thirty minutes and see if I can't get about two to three percent closer to gaining level one hundred and fifty eight.

Most games I end up taking way too long to beat then I lose interest... it's bad I think I'm getting old or grown up as a friend told me earlier today... lol
I think a lot of us are waiting for the great gaming crash.
I can't wait to see Final Fantasy XIV flop so that way Square Enix will be scrambling desperately around... It's bad but I think I would enjoy seeing them sweat.

Final Fantasy Tactics was awesome, I just wished they would let you have your five main characters or ones you pick and then when a guest arrives you're able to have a sixth member in your party... they could easily just add more monsters to make it more difficult to add to the challenge to make up for the sixth party member being in the team at that very point at least lol... I think I made that wordy enough lol

I think Rafa and Malak's story was interesting-- it had a good ending for those two at least.

Yea not sure how long I will be in Europe... probably at least two months.

As far as movies you have to give Advent Children credit. That one was really good I thought. It could have been better had the put more time into it.

Also Spirits within was ok as long as they didn't call it Final Fantasy lol

Back on Maplestory... I have one Ultimate Adventurer ... a bowman/wind archer.. If you want ultimate adventures better make them soon because they will not be able to be made anymore after a couple more patches ahead.

Hawtness. ;D

@ Kole: That doesn't sound very rewarding. D: But I gotta admit that grinding at higher levels is really fun with friends.. especially if you battle other people for control over maps lol.
I had a wind archer too! Nothing beats grinding while spamming AR and that Wind gusty attack.

Growing up is overrated. Too much stuff to do, too little time left for video games imo. [lol]
You probably don't wanna think about how much of their resources they are pouring into XIV right now, if it flops again we just might see a VII remake, haha.

Agreed. I like having more characters active at one time. XII did that well in that you have your three characters plus a 4th when they are a guest.
I wanted to keep the main characters in my party, but lots of times I like being able to have the generic soldiers in my party too. I never even wanted to use Meliadoul because by the time I got her I had a full party with Ramza, Orlandu, Agrias, Mustadio, and one generic.

I feel bad for Rafa considering all the shit she went through. Can't say I ever used them much because I didn't think they were that useful. D:

Wasn't Advent Children a fairly short movie? I don't remember much in the way of the story development. I definitely would have wanted to see more of the City of the Ancients in Cg. That was probably one of my favorite areas in VII.

I was too young to understand Spirits within.. it was so confusing. e_e

Oh you like the Ksing Wars don't you lol!! I've been in a few KSing wars... the last one I was in a GM came by and froze everything and told everyone to grow up and quit acting like kids and if we didn't stop we were going to get a 24 hour ban. So yea Ksing is fun sometimes but can land you in hot water with the GMs.

I love Wind Archer... I want to make one before they become extinct... well actually all the Cygnus Knights are going to be able to get to level two hundred and fifty now! Each Cygnus Knight is going to get new skills and everything. They just redid the Thunder Breaker and it really looks cool on KMS. I played for about thirty minutes but I kept Disconnecting so I lost heart after the third time and didn't reconnect. I may play a little bit later on today.

I have a good feeling FF XIV will flop and pray it does for that reason... and when they do decide to do it I just hope they don't eff it up or I really will be pissed. Spirits Within you have to watch it twice to get it. I don't think it was a bad movie just should never have called in Final Fantasy at all..

Yea that Meladioul character is really not needed but she is powerful though. I think if any movie would be good that one would. Tactics would have made a great movie... although it kind of reminds me slightly of the War of the Roses with all of the back stabbing and double dealing lol.

Don't remind me. Every sale adds 5+ games to my backlog. D:

@ Kole: Oh wow, that is hilarious. I love KS wars with AOE spam, I would get like 5 frames per second. Good times at Jesters/MP3.

Holy smokes! What is even the point of having such a high level cap? I barely knew anyone who was higher than say.. level 140 back in the day. e_e I'm glad to see Thunder Breakers/brawlers getting some love though. Pirates were so ignored! D:

Maybe I should watch it again then.. I'm sure than ten year old me was just expecting a run of the mill final fantasy storyline rather than a sci fi movie, lol.

Politically themed stories have a lot of that backstabbing and double dealing, it seems. [lol]

You know I never understood why Jesters which area mere level seventy are worth one thousand three hundred and fifty experience points when other monsters their level are no where near worth that amount and much more difficult to defeat. Ksing wars are plenty during double experience events. They had Australia day and had an entire day full of KS wars, I usually try to PQ or train at a lesser known spot. LHC, Jesters, and MP3 is usually a place full of KSers and hackers. They sill have yet to get a handle on a lot of these hackers but they are making some progress.

When you talk about back in the day you're referring back before Big Bang right?
What class were you or what classes do you have?

I made one of every single class surprisingly so I could get a little taste of Each one. My main is a level one hundred and fifty-seven Ice/Lightning Arch Mage.

I figured raising the level cap was coming soon. It was only a matter of time which to me made no sense about lowering the level at which jobs advance. 3rd job used to be at level seventy now it's at level sixty and fourth job is now at level one hundred instead of one hundred twenty...makes absolutely no sense to me whatsoever.

Yea many people are going to love the new revamped and improved Cygnus Knights! I can't wait either. They have only revealed the Thunder Breaker. I have a Dawn Warrior at level One hundred twenty so I'm kind of anxious to see that one.

Spirits Within wasn't your typical story...
Yea I think that's what made Final Fantasy Tactics such an intriguing story.

@ Kole: Me neither.. Lots of the enemies in the haunted house had a ridiculous HP to EXP ratio compared to monsters in regular areas. I think that Nexon just kind of ignores certain areas when it comes to balancing.. especially in Singapore, and NLC. It's ridiculous that the monsters that they make dungeons don't give good exp yet they expect us to be able to train at those.
For lvl 70 I just trained with homunculus at that Mage city in the desert. Wasn't long until other people found my spot though. D:
I think part of the reason why Nexon doesn't go ahead and put better monsters in the training dungeons is because of hackers and how difficult it would be to track them down. ):

Yeah. I have a level 9x Brawler, and a 8x Wind Archer. I started my brawler before big bang but lvled it to 90 after. I guess nowadays it's not that big of a deal to pass level 70. ):

Oooh, I/L is so fun. I played one in a private server before. Chain Lightning <3

Yeah.. that's kind of ridiculous that they would lower the job advance level and change the exp curve.. it's not as rewarding to hit 4th job but still a tedious grind to get 4th job skills to be worth their while. D:

EDIT: omgomg after 3 months of pain I finally got Sleeping Dogs to run on my computer. All it took was an update to my GPU drivers. I knew the problem wasn't with my computer. <333

I used to train at Homonuculus myself over in Magatia. That town was an interesting place I have to say. Now I train wherever I can... I'm not tough enough to defeat pink bean yet and I can hardly ever find anyone who is looking to do the Party quest so I'm just grinding until I hit level one hundred and sixty so I can go on into future Henesys. I hear that is a good place to train lol
Temple of Time has way too many hackers especially during double experience events.
A level eighty wind archer I bet thats a fun character and a level ninety brawler...my brawler is at level thirty lol... I have a Jett too which was a short time exclusive class only to GMS... China Maplestory with Taiwan had the Dragon Warrior for a exclusive class which looked really cool... and then the Japanses maplestory had the best two exclusive classes... yea that's right Japan got two exclusive classes... which one was a samurai and the other was a shrine priestess/mage character which was really cool... I think it's sad we won't ever get to play that one lol

Yes I love my Ice and Lightning Arch Mage... Chain Lightning is the main attack you use when fighting bad guys at high level...s I haven't gotten my hyper skills yet which you start getting at level one hudnred and forty.

A lot has changed since you've been gone...for sure!

Oh wow. Did GMS ever defeat Pink Bean? I'm guessing it's like a regular thing to do now, haha.
Exclusive classes? I never heard anything about that. What type of class is Jett?

And Hyper skills? Oh my goodness. At this rate I am better off reading patch notes than bothering you about every little update. I hope that I/L mages have a good single target attack now. I remember that they weren't really that desirable for Zakum and whatnot because they were mostly used to training purposes/ AoE spam.

._.

Speaking of Maplestory I have a lvl 120 character on there. Blerg.

People defeat the regular pink bean pretty quickly but they have chaos pink bean which is much more difficult to defeat... there are so many updates I could write three pages easily about it. Yes Hyper skills are like fifth job in essence... they only have hyper skills for the heroes, Kaiser, Angelic Burster and that's it... hyper skills for the other classes come later... I think you get your first hyper skill at level one hundred and forty. Ice/Lightning arch mages are awesome now... but Fire/Poison Mages can do more damage now. Bishops new Hyper skill called Heaven's Door will rock! I have Priestess at level ninety-three... I'm seven levels away from fourth job! lol

The Jett class is supposed be a pirate class which is between like a bucanneer and corsair they are strong... in essence to me its kind of like the pirate hero... because the heroes don't actually have a pirate hero...since Pirates didn't exist (at least the job classes) when they first fought the black mage.
I don't know if they will ever bring Jetts back. I know a lot of people whine about them not being around lol.

@Greed - Hi there, what class is your level 120 character\? What is Blerg? What server are you on? Maplestory is getting big again they keep coming up with new content every time you turn around.

I gotta check this out o_o Especially since Maple is on Steam now, haha.

I still have no idea what Steam is... everyone keeps talking about it and I am totally clueless!