Ready Up

Level Up!

..I play the same game over and over again.

Final Fantasy X-2 is a game I turned my nose up at the instant my beloved, delicate, quiet, innocent Yuna took to a stage in a miniskirt and started singing and dancing. I hate the whole “Y, R, P! Girl power!” notion. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with girls having power, but there’s something annoying about (literally) making a song and dance about it at every opportunity and inappropriate non-opportunity.

Final Fantasy X-2
“What can I do for you?” You can shut the hell up and summon Valefor again like the good old days

Most of the characters I liked from Final Fantasy X were missing or abhorrently changed. New areas tended to take the form of bland, repeating copy-and-paste corridors. I had to do a mission where I paired up monkeys to make happy monkey couples.

And yet for some reason I saw fit to sink over 400 hours into Final Fantasy X-2. Why? Because I wanted to level up. I wanted everyone to be level 99. I wanted everyone to have maximum ability points for each inexplicably stupid “dressphere”. The idea of increasing numbers, chances and statistics is hugely addictive, even when I despise the damn game.

I quite like Borderlands. I’m enjoying it. But I can’t actually remember the last time I bought a game before this. There are so many games I’ve missed, and I’m missing out on, partly due to funds, but also because I’ve been thoroughly absorbed in hitting level 50 with my dear Roland the Soldier. After that I need to hit level 50 with Brick. Then I intend to hit level 50 with Lilith. Then I’d like to hit level 50 with Mordecai.

The prospect of adding another point to a stat and to really feel the benefits the next time there’s an enemy in my face, is both thrilling and amazingly sad. It’s a massive accomplishment for me to stroll casually by the standard enemies and defeat them with ease, when not so long ago they challenged and scared me.

Right now, Roland is sitting at level 49, waiting. But I’ve temporarily abandoned him. Because deep down I know that once I’ve hit 50, once my experience bar ceases to move, and I can’t spend any more points for any more improvements (apart from weapon proficiency, I suppose), I’ll loose all incentive to continue playing.

Metal Gear Solid 2

Metal Gear Solid always has me hooked for a number of reasons (Snake is God, Snake is God, Snake is God, and the story is rather brilliant), but something compelled me to force Snake to do pull-ups on the railings of the tanker for what felt like hours. You can max Snake out to level 3 for railing-holding-on-ness!!! YEAH! EXCELLENT!

Okay, that’s all. Roland isn’t going to reach 50 while I’m sitting here.

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Comments

5 responses to “Level Up!”

  1. Markatansky avatar
    Markatansky

    That’s maybe the same reason Call of Duty is so popular. They’ve taken a great shooter and added a levelling up system (getting kills for weapons and attachments and the experience ranking system) and made a great game. I *say* great, but I only mean that when it isn’t being glitched out to the max. >:(

  2. Leon avatar
    Leon

    “I turned my nose up at the instant my beloved, delicate, quiet, innocent Yuna took to a stage in a miniskirt”
    I thought… why?
    “…and started singing and dancing” ….Ah
    Honestly, looking past the singing and “YRP” crap, I did actually rather enjoy FFX-2 – the stupidly named “Dresspheres” making a welcome return to the concept of the Job system, and the attention to detail was nice, with each character modelled individually in each class which I thought was pretty cool, Rikku looked awesome as a Warrior. Obviously the “cut-paste” feeling was entirely due to it being a sequel set on the same world as FFX on the same console. I do agree with you on the most part, but as an individual game I did think that FFX-2 had some good qualities that I honestly enjoyed 😀

  3. Emily avatar
    Emily

    I think it’s all a matter of taste, I was hoping for something more serious and compelling throughout. I know the game would’ve been berated if it was ‘more of the same’, but that’s something I would’ve loved, most of the changes really warped the FFX universe for me.

    I enjoyed the fighting, and no matter how serious a levelling-up addiction I may have, I can’t do it unless the fighting is good, and the fighting certainly was good fun. Beserker dresspheres all-round please!

  4. Leon avatar
    Leon

    Maybe its because I’m a guy, but the fact that Yuna and Rikku were ten times hotter in FFX-2 sort of made up for the cheesiness of it 😛

    I did feel as though it lacked something, but then FFX was so good it would have been hard to beat, and I see FFX-2 as more of a spin-off that solid sequel. Worst thing was Leblanc, but Nooj, Baralai and Gippal were pretty cool. Loved the way Shuyin fought like Tidus, too.

  5. Omni avatar
    Omni

    “Final Fantasy X-2 is a game I turned my nose up at the instant my beloved, delicate, quiet, innocent Yuna took to a stage in a miniskirt and started singing and dancing.”

    but, that isn’t even really Yuna =P

    and FFX didn’t leave any real story to spin off of, Square just made this game because alot of girls were introduced to the Final Fantasy series with ten, and they could make tons of money off of a mediocre sequel, think of it like ANY spin off to a Jim Carrey movie, they all made money, but they were all terrible, because, just like FFX-2 compared to FFX, they lack the main character that we loved the original for.

    I agree with the whole “girl power” notion being annoying, but by making only females for the lead roles and a battle system rivaling an episode of Sailor Moon, they could actually get a male audience.

    I just got to say, MGS4 is one of the most beautiful games evvvveeeeer so you should totally play it and borderlands is very very fun, in which, speaking of girl power, lilith is the most awesome survalist killing machine ever. kill something, regenerate health and shields while burning and electrocuting everything around me? don’t mind if I do.

    oh, and I love your hair Emily.

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