ACNL: Out With the Old and in With the New

Only one villager (Tutu) had moved out as a result of mostly neglecting Animal Crossing for a few weeks for Bravely Default and other activities. I guess that isn’t too bad, given that she mailed me her picture. Why can’t I seem to get any villager pics unless they move out?
tutupic

I was pleasantly surprised to see that Lucha had moved into town as he was on my dreamie list.
lucha

After speaking with Ankha last night for about 20 minutes straight, I finally got her to move into Chulak. She better be worth it since getting her to move in cost me about 20k and my Saturday night K.K. Slider boot (left it in my inventory, whoops). When campers agree to move in, is that guaranteed or is there a chance that they will bail out? About a month ago, Skye agreed to move in but never did.
akha

Woot woot, an actual visitor.
visitor

Squall Isn’t THAT Bad of a Character

Finally approaching the end of my Final Fantasy VIII playthough; I have been picking it up on-and-off this past month (mostly off lately, but I hope to at least ummm finish the game at some point in the near future). There are several things that I really like about FFVIII: The pseudo-futuristic/modern setting, the characters (most of them at least), and the fact that it is ultimately a character driven story (versus being politically driven for example). That said, I had forgotten how odd and polarizing this game was. I am trying to think of another JRPG as or close to as polarizing as FFVIII and I really can’t think of any. I suspect the main reasons being: Bizarre gameplay mechanics/character progression, ludicrous plot, and Squall. Squall of course having been crowned as the gaming champion of emo.

When I had originally played this game as a teen I disliked Squall as a protagonist, but as an adult, I don’t really understand why Squall garners so much hate. He is sort of tactless if not a bit rude and definitely socially distant, but he’s not really all that emo or angsty in my opinion. He is a good student and works hard to complete the missions as professionally as possible. Amongst his peers, he’s probably one of the least emo given that the task of baby sitting a group of bipolar teenagers is suddenly thrust upon him. Let’s review:

  • Quistis, his instructor (he was not aware that she had been relieved of that position at the time), takes him aside out of class for the sake of hitting on him and using him as a receptacle for all of her personal issues. So awkward and inappropriate.
  • Zell “I need Ritalin” Dincht is unable to appropriately channel his bountiful energy and enthusiasm in an appropriate manner or direction that does not involve annoying people in the middle of a life-and-death mission.
  • Irvine, a horndog cowboy who clearly cannot keep it in his pants. Freezes up at the most critical point in the mission.

It is also worth noting that at least half of Squall’s dialog is in head. It’s unfair to judge him by his internal monolog as he does manage to keep most of his shitty thoughts to himself, unlike the rest of the cast. It’s not that he is cold hearted, it’s that he is an introverted character among a group of distinctly extroverted characters that in contrast make him appear more apathetic than he really is. That said, “whatever” is probably the most irritating quotation in the game…

Odds and Ends: February 1st 2014

I am towards the end of Final Fantasy VIII, but my interest is seriously starting to wane as is my obsession with Animal Crossing, but that game is more of a on-and-off affair anyway.

  • The Bravely Default demo is pretty fun and as a result, I am planning on buying it as soon as it comes out. It is the spiritual successor to Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light (originally read that as Final Fantasy IV and was a bit confused). Old school style RPG with implied pros and cons, job based combat and character progression system, SUPER awesome music and art style.
  • I purchased the Thief Gold, Thief 2, and Thief: Deadly Shadows package off of Steam and modded it to my liking (note to self: post about that later). Cautiously excited about Thief 4, but mostly because it is a break in the stealth game drought. I have a sneaky feeling though that it will not remain too faithful to the series.
  • The Legend of Zelda 4 Swords Anniversary Edition is free through tomorrow on the 3DS Nintendo eShop. I love competitive co-op games, especially those that give you the opportunity to fuck over other players in a friendly manner.
  • We have a bird feeder and it’s kind of awesome. YAY birds.
  • Finally got around to picking up The Lies of Locke Lamora and am greatly enjoying it thus far.