Betrayal at Themasa (spoiler alert on ff6!)

Sean here. So Teague brought up a great point that we kinda need to bring this around and get back on track. So I've also hopped back on the band wagon and have continued my adventures in the world of FF 6.

So last night, General Leo attempted to negotiate peace with some esper's at the town of Themasa, and then that DOUCHE BAG Kefka showed up and practically killed EVERYONE. First he knocked everyone out and began turning espers into magicite for his nefarious purposes, and then Leo got up and tried to stop him. Now, Leo is a total BADASS. After thinking he's put some hurt on Kefka, the little fuck sneaks up behind Leo, knocks him over, and STABS HIM TO DEATH. Fucking Kefka, I hate him so damn much. I'm actually looking forward to completing the game so I can give him some payback that's been put off for way to long.

After surviving that little debacle, I then returned to my airship and ran some errands and ascended to the now floating continent. (As Kefka and the Emperor found some statues of DOOM, through a sealed gate in the esper world)

Question: why are floating islands such a common theme in JRPG's? (Lufia and the fortress of doom also featured a "floating fortress"). I'm guessing there is something ominous about a floating peace of real estate.

"General Leo"
"Honorable warrior"
"Killed with dishonor"

More episodic content to follow - Sean

I Am Stuck

I can't believe I am stuck on the Vargas fight. I get to the point in the fight when Sabin shows up, and you have to use the blitz attack to win, (Left, right, left, then X) but after 4 tries at it, I still cant do it. Maybe I need help, or my timing is off. I do not know.

Yeah, I am here

Hey all, it's Big Mike here finally. I will be starting my game today, which will be FF6. I would like to say good luck to me and that is all.

The oh so famous opera

Sean here. It's been forever since my last post, so I figured I'd post a quick update. I just completed the famous "opera house scene" in FF6 in the world of balance. SO GOOD. It just reminds me of how much this game rocks.

However, I have been fairly busy and have been procrastinating on playing the game. This is one such reason that we created the Zuul arcade, to help curb these issues and FINISH these damn games! The good part about this blog is now it feels like an obligation to complete ff6 rather than a casual "do what I want" playthrough.

Not much more than that to update. I'm sure we'll post more silly video's and zany blogs soon.

New year, new post

Sean here. Happy 2010 everyone!

So, the 1st part of my blog I will regale everyone with my most recent trials and tribulations on ff6. In the 2nd part, I will offer words of encouragement to my fellow bloggers who ARE ALL EXPERIENCING PROBLEMS. This is the exact reason we created Zuul arcade, to help us get through the minutia of different issues that are going to arise.

So, ff6 has been well and good. I'm remembering much more of the game than I realize and I'm playing it in what I refer to as "episodic content". I'll get to a part of the game (I.E. the phantom train) and I'll go "OOOH YEAH...this part. crap. I really don't want to do this right now." So what I do is I'm playing in 15-20 minute stretches and putting the game down when I'm sensing I'm getting bored with it. I'm also switching up and using party members I almost never used on my previous playthroughs just to make it a different experience this time. It's actually helping quite a bit. For example, in previous playthroughs I almost never used Celes...now as I'm older and wiser, I'm realizing that many characters abilites become useless later on in the game, that earlier on are really powerful (such as sabin's blitz moves.) Celes's "Runic" ability is ALWAYS HELPFUL. she essentially neutralizes all enemy magical attacks. So I'm learning to be a bit more crafty with my party selections. I've currently just found terra in Zozo and recieved the chainsaw for Edgar. (quite nifty!) and now I must infiltrate the empire.

Good times.

Now for my friends in need.

Teague, that issue with Shining Force SUCKS. Life has decided it is testing you, and your patience and your ability to not smash your computer to bits. Frankly, as people voted, it looks like a restart is in order. I would offer you an actual genesis with the game, but I can't guarantee a save battery circa 1993 is still going to work. the damn thing is nearly 20 years old, and the batteries are supposed to have a life span of about 5 years...I'm actually wondering if there are companies that offer replacement services. something to look into. What we need is to find a Rom that isn't going to fuck you over. So, I would give it one more try, and if you find a similar issue with another rom, I don't think anyone will blame you for passing this one over. But it will attack your well being because you'll be feeling like you "gave up". So we'll figure something out.

Brendan. Your issue is a little harder, and is more like a mental block. My best suggestion is to run the game in the backround while your doing something else, or multiple things. Maybe watch a movie you like and while your watching just kind of pay a half sort of attention to the current part of the game your at. If it's an issue were you don't know where to go, Mike is essentially a goddamn ff6 expert and can pretty much point you in the correct direction at any time, but I'm not thinking that's the case. Since your in the WOR, there is a ton of content that needs to be addressed before you go about trying to fight God Kefka. But yeah, my suggestion would be just turn the game on even if you don't feel like playing it so that it's right there in front of you so you'll kind of feel obligated to dick around with it.

Mike, I like the critique of eternal sonata. But I agree that having LESS time the more POWERFUL you get is rather gay. I can see the thinking behind this, some developer was sitting at his cubicle going "Well, since there more skilled at this point, they don't need as much time". And to this I say "Where the hell was the rest of the development team that has any SENSE? Why didn't they kick this guy in the teeth?" Because whoever thought of this, that's what they need, a goddamn kick in the teeth. Or a good curbstomp. Where's Teague?

Oh, for all you Zuul arcade readers/posters. Poetry is free form and I'm a goddamn haiku PIONEER. Years from now millions of failed haiku's will be attributed to my name, because I was brave enough to break boundries, and I will dub these "Seanku's"

"Kefka is evil"
"His laughter scares small children"
"He needs a curbstomp"

All right I'm out. We are still working on the challenge bat, and have many good things in store this year! - Sean

A turning point....

So, onward I have played in FFVI, and I've at long last come to an important way point. The same place I stopped playing every other time I've started this game. Kefka has just torn the world asunder, our heroes are scattered and despondent, and I'm left to gather them back and go whip me some sally clown ass. Now, this is noteworthy in and of itself, but then you find out that I got here SATURDAY. I haven't touched it since. It's exactly what has happened every f@(%!#& time I've started this game. I don't know what it is. You couldn't pull me away from it all Christmas, I'm still loving the story, and there's now literally an entire new world to explore, and I can't bring myself to sit down and beat it. I have no idea why. I just feel so unbelievably blasé, it's maddening.

But this is where this blog comes in. This entire experiment was created for the explicit purpose of helping us get through these doldrums so that we may take our rightful place amongst the other gaming elite of our generation. I'm going to give it a day or two, get through new years and then if I still don't feel the need to finish, I'm going to strap myself to a chair and power through it if it kills me. This does raise some interesting questions for debate though. Is there something in the game that keeps me from wanting to finish? Are there other games out there with the same phenomenon? I'd love to hear examples and ideas.

But everyone else was doing it!

So in the spirit of getting things underway with everyone else, I busted out the old emu-later, and my well worn rom of FFVI. Ah nostalgia!

Now, I've had this argument too many times to count, so I'll state my position right now. This is without a doubt my favorite kind of RPG. You have a simple system, with intriguing stories, deep characters, varied game play, evil douche villains and over the top sprite animations to show simple emotion. There is arguably no "main" character to this game. Everyone gets screen time, and everyone has a measurable role in advancing the story. It takes almost no time to work out how to play the game, but provides hours and hours of play time.

I think this is why I've never actually finished. It takes a good solid 40-60 hours to beat this game I'm told. Spread that out over several weeks and some other thing steals my weak as a kitten attention span. I must have about 7 different save files on several different systems and computers. Now arguably I could just boot up one of those and save myself a lot of repeating, but it's been so long, I don't remember half of the puzzles and twists so it feels more fun to go back and be like "oh yeah! That octopus fucker ultrose! I hate that douche!"

And after 2 hours logged, I'm at that exact spot. Floating down the river, and BAM octopus douche. Now for those who don't know/remember, you have this guy Bannon with you, and if he dies, you lose. not a huge deal until you see that Ultrose can one shot the poor schlub, and there's really not a lot to be done, but restart and try again. Not the best example of the finer points of this game, but one of those things that strikes me as defining of the game. You feel accomplished when you roast the bastard and float on victorious, even if you do go over a waterfall 3 seconds later.

We'll see how that damn cephalopod likes a few dozen fire spells to his face tomorrow.

And since Sean rather stunningly failed at a FF haiku *ahem*:

Big purple squid thing.
likes to use his tentacles
fuck, what a douche bag

Chocobo riding,
really just a mini game
but such a great song

The Returners boss
heals like a doctor on speed
'till Ultros ate him.

Quest into nostalgia

Sean here. Let me start with a couple of things. 1. I'm glad someone is taking the time to read this blog and give feedback. 2. Teague, great post. You definitely ironed out some of the finer points we've been trying to make. 3. If you need a copy of shining force, I still have mine. 4. Whoever your friend is that has beaten battletoads for the nes, be sure to give them props for me. That's DAMN impressive.

The other thing I'm posting about, is I finally started Final Fantasy 6. Because I'm playing the playstation iteration, cut cinema scenes have been added that I feel great add substance to the story. The snes may be what we NOW consider to be "graphically limited", but for the times, this game was a masterpiece visually and in storytelling, and the fact that I'm still enjoying it 15 years later is a great testament.

So, I've decided to describe my first journey back into ff6 through a Haiku poem.

"Magic's last child"
"Riding her metal beast"
"Destruction in her wake"

For all your critics out there, I have no idea if this is proper Haiku, and frankly I don't give a damn.

So I had totally forgotten about the giant snail you have to fight in the beginning of the game. I felt kinda bad for it. I had 3 people riding mecha, armed with seriously heavy magic and the only thing snail had was slime and apprently the word "gruu". I don't think this was evenly matched. Killing a mosquito with a cannon type shit.

It is nice to be playing a final fantasy game where nearly all the characters are awesome. More often than not, in the more recent final fantasy's there's at least one main character everyone despises.

So that's my first delve into FF6. More to follow. - Sean

The challenge bat. and other things.

Sean here. So this entire blog was an idea to create a community to help support each other to beat games that we just lose motivation to beat. So the main part of this blog is to document our misadventures in old time gaming, and to give support and advice when slogging through difficult parts of our favorite games.

And then there's the other reason.

During our conversation about setting up this blog, we became very pissed off with the state of gaming today. Back in the day, graphical and technological limitations forced developers to make games HARD, so that they would keep us entertained for long periods of time. Beating a game came with a sense of accomplishment because actual skills had to be developed to accomplish such a feat.

Now that graphical limitations are no longer an issue, games are now just as complex as most large budget films, telling stories while being much "easier" then their predecessors; We're talking games for the NES such as Battletoads, and Kid Icarus. Anyone who has played these games knows the countless hours of frustration one goes through, and the ultimate realization of defeat when they realize these games are nigh IMPOSSIBLE to beat. But people who call themselves "gamers" nowadays are more concerned with cheating their way through games, and "achievements," and cheating to GET those achievements through any means possible. Rather than building posterity and actually investing time into playing a game, they seem to be looking for a quick thrill before moving on to the next "big" thing.

In response to this paradigm shift, the authors of this blog are currently working on a set of old school gaming challenges known as "The Challenge Bat Challenges". We pass the challenge bat to each other to beat old school games WITHOUT CHEATING. It is our intention to document these trials and tribulations for posterity, as well as your viewing pleasure.

The basic idea is that a two person team will take on a game together, and for every day that they fail at completing the challenge, they are punished in someway, forcing us to develop our skills as old school gamers.

We are instituting a voting process to make sure a challenge is legitimate, as we are currently making a list of what we like to call "Bullshit challenges". An example of a Bullshit challenge would be the original Superman game for the NES or Battletoads. There's just no reasonable way to expect someone to skillfully play their way through these games without complete and total dumb luck.

Therefore "bullshit challenges" will not have a punishment attached to them if they are taken on.

All this being said, everyone game on! I will be starting my run through Final Fantasy 6 this weekend, using the playstation anthology iteration. Good luck to my other two Final Fantasy 6 playing mates, Big Mike and Brendan. Good luck in your trials, and be sure to document often. - Sean

Good idea! Here's the old american FFVI/III commercial as well:

In the First Days...

I am making this a separate post, because I wanted the first to be an explanation. Or a reminder to us, anyway, because we're only able to remember so many things at a time.

Our first project here comes from the idea which spawned the whole silly thing. We will be starting and finishing some RPGs that have too long been left unfinished. For this challenge, we have (so far, anyway):

Teague (me): Shining Force - Sega Genesis

Laughing Mike: Eternal Sonata - X-Box 360 (Newer game, but he bought it like a year ago.)

Brendan: Final Fantasy VI - SNES

Sean: Final Fantasy VI - Also SNES

Big Mike: Final Fantasy VI - Still SNES

Seriously, none of them have finished Final Fantasy VI. Neither have I, though. But I'm playing the other one anyway, this time. Laughing Mike has already begun his plunge into Eternal Sonata.