Game Review: Final Fantasy X-2

 

      Since I made a blog post about Final Fantasy X, might as well make one for its sequel: Final Fantasy X-2. Again, Final Fantasy X-2 is a role-playing game and was developed and published by Square-Enix (or formally known as Square) for Sony's PlayStation 2 in 2003, two years later after the best-selling game Final Fantasy X was released. The game's story follows one of the main protagonists from Final Fantasy X, Yuna, now as the main protagonist, as she seeks to resolve political conflicts in the fictional world, Spira before it leads to war.Of all the Final Fantasy game series, this was the first one having only three playable characters and are all female. So if you are a guy and you prefer playing male roles, this is probably not a game for you, unless you might change you mind. 

      The sequel is set two years after the conclusion of Final Fantasy X, establishing new conflicts and dilemmas and resolving loose ends left by the original game. After receiving a movie sphere that shows a blurry figure that looked strongly like Tidus located at the Mount Gagazet by one of the characters from Final Fantasy X, Kimahri Ronso, Yuna decides to be a sphere hunter in the a group created by Rikku, another character from the Final Fantasy X's brother, called Seagull. Along with Rikku, Yuna is also teamed up the third and last female trio, Paine, who unlike Yuna and Rikku, is serious about her work and rarely trusts people other than the duo. Unlike Final Fantasy X, these trio have a different way to 'power up'. Instead of using a Sphere Grid, they use Dresspheres and Garment Grid. A dressphere is where the character can use to gain different abilities such as the ability to heal using white magic, fight using black magic, uses a variety of gadgets, or fight using one classic sword. These dresspheres are gained throughout Spira, like the Aeons (summoning beasts) in Final Fantasy X. Now with Sin forever gone, the young people of Spira abandon the Yevon teachings for machina to help shape a new Spira. However, the older generation thought this was a big change and is going way too fast. As new ideals and practices began to sweep Spira, several new political groups emerged. Most influential among them were the Youth League led by Mevyn Nooj, and the New Yevon Party led by a former priest named "Trema" until his disappearance, and later by Praetor Baralai. The Youth League consists mainly of young people, determined to see Spira completely abandon its past practices, while the New Yevon Party consists of members both old and young who felt that changes should be gradual, their motto being "One thing at a time".

     Overall, I think its pretty nice to see the original characters from Final Fantasy X and new characters, but I still feel disappointed. Despite the fact that the game was voted as the 32nd best game of all time, there are flaws. I still prefer Final Fantasy X because of the variety of characters while Final Fantasy X-2 focuses on a trio of girls. However it's less complicated so to those who prefer that, go right ahead and play it!

Game Review: Final Fantasy X

   
     I have no idea WHY would I pick this topic, but most teenagers (especially the guys) play video games, right? Well I'll be more specific on the game I'm talking about: Final Fantasy X. Like movies, there are genres for videogames and for Final Fantasy X, this is a role-playing game, a.k.a RPG. What is a role-playing game? It is when the player takes a role of a character(s) in a fictional setting. It's like you are part of a story and a game at the same time! This was developed and published by Square (Square Enix) as the tenth title in the Final Fantasy series. It was released in 2001 for Sony's PlayStation 2 and was the first to include voice-acting.
    The game sets in a fantasy world named Spira, where the whole story's main purpose was to destroy a monster called "Sin". Sin is a 'creature' shrouded with water and was created because of the people's sins and the only way to end it was for the people's atonement for their sins from using machina weapons (machines) for war.The play character is Tidus, a blitzball (a fictional underwater sport) star who finds himself in Spira after his home city of Zanarkand is destroyed by Sin. During the game, Tidus, along with several others, aids the summoner Yuna on her pilgrimage (journey) to destroy Sin.
      I noticed there are a lot of similarities from the game compared to real life and ideas based on real life. For example, there are some different 'races' or tribes/clans in the game that can be distinguished by the their outlooks and a made-up religion called Yevon. There is also the 'atonement' that the people must do because of their use in machina for war. In real life, the atonement is like what we call "the Apocalypse" or "The Final Judgement" predicted because of people's evil acts. The underwater sport, blitzball, is also based on a real life sport, soccer (football) and handball. There is also a similar 'act' of genocide (not torturing people or keeping them captured, but were trying to get rid most of them) of people in the videogame called the Albed. The Yevon's people think that the Albed are the cause for Sin because they do not follow Yevon's teachings and they use machina, a forbidden act from Yevon's teachings. For that reason, they fought against Yevon and had to dispersed to other foreign islands because were being outnumbered with the people of Yevon. 
    Overall, I really enjoyed this game, despite the fact that its really old and all. It also features minigames and a way to power up your characters by using a "sphere grid". I loved the plot because it contains a bit of romance towards the two protagonists in the story. However, I wouldn't recommend this to anyone who doesn't like really complex games. With a fan reaction towards this amazing game, its sequel, Final Fantasy X-2, was released two years later in 2003.
        - Interested in this game? Here's a link: FFX

Imagining the Unimaginable... Final Draft

3. Human nature: Who participates in genocide, and why? What does the commonality of genocide lead you to believe about humanity?

        The "official" definition of genocide is "any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial, or religious group, as such: killing members of the group; causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life, calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; [and] forcibly transferring children of the group to another group”. People who participate in genocide generally believe that those they are exterminating are the cause of major problems and/or evil. They generally believe in a certain racial group because of their "difference" between them and the rest.
          There were variety of genocides; a well known genocide would be the Holocaust, or "Shoah" ,or "Final Solution" to the Jewish. The Holocaust was one where approximately 6 million Jews were innocently involved during the World War II. However, apart from the Jewish, there were also other groups, including ethnic Poles, Romani, Soviet civilians, Soviet prisoners of war, people with disabilities, homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses, and other political and religious opponents. Including the groups, the total number of Holocaust victims would be ^{between 11 million to 17 million people.}

          During Hitler's control, the Jewish were sent to concentration camps, stripped of what they owned. The system grew to include about 100 camps divided into two types: concentration camps for slave labor in nearby factories and death camps for the extermination of the 'different' groups (Jews, the mentally retarded, homosexuals, etc.).Many people were torn from families, tortured, and lived in fear. Children who were born in camps or were too young were sent to the burning pits upon arrival. This also included any elderly or people with health issues. Other than the SS men who control the camps, people die because of being experimented using drugs, had unnecessary operations on spines, organs, etc. Josef Mengele was known for his 'work' on children, especially twins. He supervised an operation by which two Gypsy children were sewn together to create Siamese twins. Some children’s hands were infected where veins were resected. He often injected chemicals in their eyes in an attempt to change their eye color. Mengele performed experimental surgeries without using anesthesia--- transfusions of blood from one twin to another, injected lethal germs, sex change operations, removal of organs and limbs, incestuous impregnations, etc. Due to his cruel actions, he was nicknamed "Angel of Death". However, the rest of the people died from gas chambers. The gassing process was 'simple' -some hot air was pumped in from the ceiling, then crystals of Cyclon were showered down on the people, and in the hot wet air they rapidly evaporated. In anything from two to ten minutes 200-250 people were dead.

           In "Night, the author, Elie Wiesel describes his vivid memory of when he and his family were sent to the Auschwitz concentration camp, which then became a center of the largest amount of Jewish deaths. In the first three chapters, he described his daily life in his childhood before when before a sudden change happens to him. So far, there were some descriptions of upon his arrival to the camp, there was a "fire"--- a black thick fire that held the smell of burnt flesh. Before long, separated from his mother and sisters, Wiesel describes of his daily routine within camp, his worries for his survival for the day. From what it was heard, if people thought that the beginning was sad, it will continue on a spiral of death...

          The commonality of genocide in history is appalling and this leads into the fact that humanity is corrupt. They are corrupt by their own insecurity and fear of being worst than the first class. If genocide was ever needed for humanity, then what has become of it just for the survival for the rest of us? Simply by killing off the evil for the sake of humanity does not mean this is for the good. No matter what, even though there is peace, there will always be violence. Genocides are just showing us that humans are cruel to kill for the sake of the so called "good" when it was really not necessary.

Twilight: Good Read?

     To those Twilight readers out there, I don't think you would really want to read this blog. So my topic would be about this thought:'Is Twilight that good since its so popular?' This thought came up ever since the first movie came out. In my opinion, I thought it might have a lot of action and humor along with this vampire-romance novel.
    To see whether or not I would actually read it before i watch the movie, I googled it, and it came out as...unoriginal. To be honest, I was disappointed. The thoughts of a possible action, humor, and romance vanished in seconds. I mean, the first novel was about about how a girl name Isabella or Bella moving from Arizona to Washington. Then, she befriends her new classmates and started getting attracted at this "mysterious" Edward. Later then, she finds out he's a vampire and their 'forbidden love' begins. This is my summary (pathetic I know) of this 'great' novel. I debated whether or not I should read the actual book in hopes of changing my mind of the book. I have never came across a novel I didn't like,until I read it. 
     It was one summer day when I decided to actually thought of the book again and decided to read 'it'. Luckily, there was one available in the main library and it took me 3 weeks. The results: I regret reading the book. How did this capture so many people's attention? And so much it turned into a movie? I tried to continue reading the next novel after that, New Moon. Once again, I was lucky that there was one available at the library. Result? Nothing. It took me 2 weeks to read the first two chapters. After that, I returned it, and never once went back to re-borrow the novel again. To those who want an actual (and proper) summary of the novel, here's the link to Wikipedia: Twilight Summary

Ice Cream

Ok now, I am officially running out of ideas and am procrastinating. Bad. Very Bad. As usual, once I am running out time, I, like many others, will do the first thing in mind: PANIC! Unless, you think of a topic before hand or having one after screaming around the house think you're going to have a late assignment. This is why I usually don't procasinate. Anyways, here's this blog's topic: Ice cream.

From Wikipedia:Ice cream or ice-cream is a frozen dessert usually made from dairy products, such as milk and cream, and often combined with fruits or other ingredients and flavours. Most varieties contain sugar, although some are made with other sweeteners.In some cases, artificial flavourings and colourings are used in addition to (or in replacement of) the natural ingredients. This mixture is stirred slowly while cooling to prevent large ice crystals from forming; the result is a smoothly textured ice cream.The meaning of the term ice cream varies from one country to another. Terms like frozen custard,frozen yogurt, sorbert, gelato, and others are used to distinguish different varieties and styles.

In most cases, people LOVE ice cream.They are great to eat especially during the summer and can by found almost everywhere in different variations. That's the great thing about ice cream. There's so many flavors to choose from, you'll end up having more than one favorite! I think it's interesting how there are different desserts that are topped, decorated, or contains ice cream. For example, if there are any a la mode after a desert, it means there's ice cream being topped off. Another dessert being what is now popular, ice cream cakes. This genius (in my opinion) thought of combining cakes AND ice cream! Everyone loves cakes and ice cream so put them together! Another popular desert is ice cream mochi. In case if no one knows what that is, ice cream is..well ice cream(or you can define it has how Wikipedia did) and mochi is a Japanese rice cake made of glutinous rice pounded into paste and molded into shape. So basically, ice cream is used for the mochi filling and once its cold, its a great desert to eat! Personally, I think this is a pretty interesting desert: Ice cream tempura. Once again, coming from Wikipedia, Ice cream tempura is commonly made by taking a scoop of ice cream frozen well below the temperature at which ice cream is generally kept, possibly coating it in raw egg, rolling it in cornflakes or cookie crumbs, and briefly deep frying it. The extremely low temperature of the ice cream prevents it from melting while being fried. Honestly, FRIED ice cream? I didn't believe it until I see it, which I did about 10 minutes later. I was amazed; it tasted so good, I expected the ice cream will be all soft and melting when in fact, it was still frozen solid. Anyways, I think that's all the desserts I can think of for now... Until then, I'm off to get some mochi ice cream.
Here's a picture of Ice Cream Tempura: