Video Game Meme!

[nikkie_chan]

1 – Do you try to stay away from walkthroughs?
Eh, yes and no. If I need help, I need help and I’m not too proud to beg/hop on Gamefaqs. But I also don’t go in before I get to that point and look for hidden stuffs to make life easier/gain completion points.

2 – Company you’re always loyal to?
They aren’t around anymore, but if anyone has an unkind word to say about Working Designs, I will kick them in the shin. Yea, they took longer than most companies to localize JRPGs, but the quality was never anything I could complain about, and the extras they threw in WITH those games? Boxing puppets, necklaces, cloth maps, buttons? YES.

3 – Best game you’ve ever played?
Lunar: Eternal Blue Complete for the PSX. The story was epic, the characters lovable, the battle system easy and fun. That game has given me more moments that have stuck with me through the 15+ years since I originally played it than any other game out there.

4- Worst game you’ve ever played?
Lunar: Dragon Song for the DS. What the fuck WAS that shit? First of all, don’t throw characters into the franchise that have the same name as pre-existing characters, especially when reincarnation is an aspect of in-game universe, and then have it be a cop out. No. Bad game. I didn’t buy it, but still. Second, experience OR items might work in games that at least give you SOME cash for upgrading equipment that will be DESPERATELY needed, but when it’s one or the other, and the experience you get from enemies is so miniscule that you still get your ass handed to you after hours of leveling up? No. Game fail. It was an official tie in to the Lunar series and I STILL traded that bitch in. THAT is failure of the highest level.

5 –A popular game series/game you just can’t get into no matter how much you try?
Given how beloved it is by fandom in general, I’m kind of ashamed to admit this, but I’ve never been able to get into the Star Ocean series. I own Star Ocean the 2nd Story, and spent the most time with it, but I ended up not getting too attached to the characters and eventually got bored. I’ve given each of the following installments an honest shot and none of them have gelled. The only redeeming thing about the most recent game (to my knowledge, the one for the 360) was Welch Vineyard for her sheer eccentricity. She added a desperately needed bright spot to the story, and she wasn’t even a main character. Not enough to make me want to actually OWN the game.

6 – A game that’s changed you the most?
The original Grandia for the PSX. The majority of the cast are children, and in spite of all the odds they faced and how desperate the situation, their resolve and optimism were genuinely moving. It wasn’t blind faith in themselves, their mettle was definitely put to the test by the plot, and it had enough depth to be genuinely emotionally moving. It made me realize that despite how much crap life throws your way, you can’t ever really let that bit of yourself die that takes great joy in life and looks forward to the future with hope and idealism. A great comfort on dark days.

7 – A game you’ll never forget?
I didn’t actually play this game personally, but in college, my friend Jason took great joy in sharing his love of the Silent Hill series by playing games 1-3 for me and my friends. Once while playing game 3, we set up shop in our dorm’s rec room and got to experience the absolute terror that was the mirror room on a large screen television. I remember a true abiding sense of horror as the main character’s surroundings, reflected in a wall mirror, began to pulsate with purple inky veins that corrupted the space and turn it a shattered, frail image of what it had been… and then funnel into the sink hole of a bathtub in the mirror image and come into the room the character is actually in. I have a great photo of my friend Michelle and I hugging each other in terror as Jason tried desperately to escape the room. Good, yet horrifying times.

8 – Best Soundtrack?
Gotta give it up for Crono Cross. Not worthy of being an official sequel to Crono Trigger, but the music was EVEN better than the original, and that is certainly saying something!

9 – A game you turn the volume off every time you play it?
I can’t say that I’ve ever played a game that had a soundtrack THAT bad, but I do eventually always end up turning off the volume on the Spyro the Dragon games, because they either get too repetitive, or because the tempo throws off my timing on mini games.

10 – A game you’ve completely given up on?
Threads of Fate for the PSX. The plot is interesting enough, by your character choices vary between A) really obnoxious and B) really boring and the combat system is not fun, nor easy to grasp. Add in constantly respawning enemies, and this game falls under the “Life is Too Short” file.

11 – Hardest game you’ve played?
Alundra for the PSX. Fantastic game, don’t get me wrong! The plot, the characters, the music, ALL really good stuff! BUT THE PUZZLES! Oh god, I suck at puzzles to begin with, but my buddy Joe, master of all things game related… even HE couldn’t complete the game! He got the VERY LAST LEG of it and just couldn’t do it!

12 – Shortest time you’ve beaten a game in?
Trace Memory for the DS. I’m not 100% positive on this, but I’m pretty sure I kicked that game out in 1 or 2 hours or so.

13 – A game that you were the most excited for when it wasn’t released yet?
Suikoden Tierkreis. It had been years since Suikoden V came out and I was desperate for another installment! What a fucking disappointment. I fail to recognize it as a successor to the franchise. That was not a Suikoden game. …there was no Viki or Jeanne. TO START WITH.

14 – A game you think would be cool if it had voice acting?
I would have loved it if Phantasy Star IV had had voice acting! It was the earliest RPG I ever played and the script and characters were great!

15 – Which two games do you think would make an awesome crossover?
The Phantasy Star and Lunar series would make EPIC crossover fodder! (Someone wrote a fan fic about it once… a fan fic I still VIVIDLY remember! Wish the author would have finished it…)

16 – Character you’ve hated the most? From what game?
I have an unreasonably deep seeded hate of Snowe from Suikoden IV. My friend Michelle was kind enough to show mercy on him and make him her 108th Star of Destiny… I DID NOT. FUCK SNOWE.

17 – What game do you never tell people you play?
Well, I suffer from verbal diarrhea, so if a game comes up in conversation that I’ve played, I speak up, but I guess if I had one game in my collection that I would be kinda hesitant to admit owning, it would be the TMNT game for the PS2 that was based on the CG animated movie. Hot damn, I loved that movie!

18 - A game you wish your friends knew about?
Well, everyone has heard me rave about Lunar, but the Arc the Lad series is another great one that only two other people I’ve ever known had any knowledge of. Very solid strategy RPG that kept it SIMPLE and didn’t make things complicated to the point of obsession. Although the ending of game 2 is nearly freaking unbeatable… The game for the PS2 was very good though!

19 – What game do you think deserves a revival?
Oh, so many choices… Having another REAL Suikoden would be wonderful, although I’d love a Grandia that erased the suckitude that was Grandia 3. Grandias 1 and 2 were too spectacular to have 3 be the note the series ended on…

20 – What was the first video game that you played?
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom for the Atari.

21 – How old were you when you first played a video game?
Oh god, I’m too old to remember this… 5 or 6?

22 – If you could immerse yourself in any game for one day, which game would it be? What would you do?
Oh goodness, Lunar: Eternal Blue Complete, definitely! I’d scale Taben’s Peak and give Nall a great big hug and then ask him to transform into a dragon and make him fly me to Vane so I could check out the library!

23 – Biggest disappointment you’ve had in gaming?
Children of Mana for the DS. The ride was spectacular! The side quests were fun, the battle system easy and addictive, the characters fun… the final boss was such a pushover that I never had to use a single health item. I traded it in.

24 – Casual, hardcore or in the middle?
Casual. You kind of have to be when the subgenre you love with all of your heart is JRPGs (which don’t get made much anymore) and you SUCK at everything else.

25 – Be honest; have you ever used cheats (like ActionReplay or Gameshark)?
Once, in college, and I won’t even try to blame it on peer pressure. However I will say that I eventually replayed the game and completed it the honest way.

26 – Handheld or console?
My heart lies with console, because the capabilities for consoles allow for much more content. BUT, if JRPGs continue to go the way of the Nintendo DS, then perhaps this will change in the future.

27 – Has there ever been a moment that has made you cry?
Of course, I’m a total pansy. In Grandia when Sue leaves the party, I always tear up and start wibbling. The game gave me a wonderfully bright, spirited and adorable little sister character, and completely realistic and understandable circumstances dictated that she had to leave me and her friends, no matter how desperately she didn’t want to. It was exquisitely bittersweet, because I hated to see her go, but I was so damn proud of her, for how much she’d evolved and how strong she really was. And damnit, I’m tearing up now! See, I’m a pushover.

28 – Which characters clothes do you wish you owned the most?
Hubert’s from Tales of Graces f! Is it weird that I think I would feel so very pretty wearing what is supposed to be a military lieutenant’s uniform?

29 – Which is more important, gameplay or story?
A good game does both well, but it’s plot points and character moments that endear games most to me.

30 – A game that hasn’t been localized in your country that you think should be localized?
Lunar: Walking School, if only because no one ever DID release a translation to the script and I really wanna know what the hell that game was about.

Original meme found here!