Final Fantasy VII Remake and Crisis Core.

So yeah, Final Fantasy VII is being remade for PS4, so even though I don't own one, I will be purchasing one just to play this game. In my opinion it's still second to FFVI, but I am curious to see what they come up with. I've heard there will be some big changes, I'm expecting voice overs, I hope Steve Burton is back for Cloud, though he's done it for every other game, so I don't see why not. What I really want though is to correct some of the dialogue that got screwed up the first time, specifically two things: #1 "Turks" is always said "Turks" ike it's plural even in cases where it should be the singular "Turk" or other syntax mismatches, please correct that grammar; #2 Barret saying"The Hell..." instead of "What the Hell?" or "Where the Hell?" he's missing a word and I don't want anyoe telling me this is some black person dialect, I know lots of black people and heard them speak all sorts of alternative dialects, none of them talk like Barret, it's not black, it's a lazy translator at Square, probably the same one that did "Turks" own up to it and correct it like you did with "Vicks/Biggs" in FFVI.

As long as I'm on the subject of FFVII, I'm going to talk about Crisis Core. Crisis Core is a prequel concerning Zack Fair and how he connects Cloud, Aerith, Sephiroth, and even the Buster Sword and Yuffie. To understand first you need to know FFVII. The whole game centers around Cloud Strife and Sephiroth. Cloud is the main character, a former SOLDIER First Class who has joined AVALANCHE, a rebel group who are basically eco-terrorists trying to take down the Shinra energy corporation, which is interestingly the only major corporation and seems to be a nation unto itself. To be fair, Shinra has done some bad things, particularly creating Sephiroth from the remains of an ancient monster who himself ends up being the ultimate threat trying to destroy the planet with a meteor. But I'm getting ahead of myself, early on Cloud sees signs of Sephiroth's return which is shocking because he clearly remembers killing him five years earlier. His flashback is critical not only for this game but also Crisis Core because it's really the reason anyone should care about Crisis Core, because it expands on the flashback and tells the whole truth. But before I get to that, let me finish explaining why we need to revisit this critical flashback. Cloud remembers accompanying Sephiroth to his hometown of Nibelheim where Tifa Lockhart is their guide and then Sephiroth discovers a terrible secret at the Shinra Manor and goes berserk burning the whole town and Cloud ends up fighting Sephiroth and kills him. However, once they return to Nibelheim, Cloud's story begins to fall apart and Tifa reveals she remembers Cloud's story, but doesn't remember him being there, she remembers a SOLDIER named Zack Fair, who was Aerith's boyfriend(that last detail is not relevant now, but stay with me). Sephiroth manages to convince Cloud he is actually a clone of Sephiroth and confuses him long enough to get him to hand over the Black Materia which will call the Meteor and end the world. Eventually we sort out the truth, Cloud was there in Nibelheim five years ago, but he was only an infatryman under Zack andf Sephiroth. The reason his memory got screwed up is because Zack had to haul him all the way to Midgar while he was still in a coma after they were locked in a lab after the fight with Sephiroth.

Okay, now let's go to Crisis Core and sort out exactly what happened from Zack's perspective. It all starts during the Wutai War, which means a cameo from Yuffie. Zack is a SOLDIER Second Class, and he has been taken under the wing of Angeal, SOLDIER First Class. The First Class are very exclusive, only three at the beginning of Crisis Core, Angeal, Sephiroth, and Genesis. Each one has a unique sword, Angeal got the Buster Sword from his father as a present for making First Class, and Spehiroth of course has his Masamune, Genesis has a red sword that really doesn't matter, however he is the catalyst that gets things going. These three also all happen to be products of experiments with Jenova cells. Genesis was the first, created by Angeal's parents who didn't realize they were expecting him and accidentally contaminated their own unborn child. This led to two different results, neither perfect, but both providing enough data to get it right on the third try, Sephiroth. Genesis is unstable and kind of loses his mind, so Angeal and the newly promoted Zack have to go looking for him. This is actually a difficult task because Genesis has the power to copy himself, giving his cells to others turnign them into clones so he can use the copies to distract his pursuers. While pursuing the copies, Zack falls into a church, the same one Cloud will fall into five years later and meets Aerith there too. The Turks know about her, but they're takig a less agressive approach at this point, deciding to let Zack be an inside man because it will be too suspicious to simply extract him after he bonded with her. Not a whole lot happens there, just enough to make you really sad about what you know is going to happen later. Anyway, Zack and Angeal pursue Genesis to a remote location and their transport crashes nearby, and Zack has to finish the trek in on foot with one infantryman, namely Cloud Strife. They hit it off quick, but then the confrontation with Genesis happens and Angeal is torn between protecting Genesis and protecting Zack and finally settles on sacrificing himself. Zack finds the Buster Sword and claims it as his own and takes Cloud under his wing the same as Angeal once did for him. Sephiroth is now the leader of SOLDIER and leads an investigation to Nibelheim. This is really the climax of the game, the whole reason you're playing is to watch this part play out and it's just like you remember it from FFVII, only way better graphics and voiceovers. You fight Sephiroth one-on-one with "One-Winged Angel" playing in the background. Then things get wierd. For some reason the ending drags Genesis back for the requisite Death God of Doom Final Battle. I am just perturbed because we already know Spehiroth is goign to be the great destroyer later on and Dirge of Cerebrus gave us Omega Weapon vs Chaos Weapon, which is at least piggybackign on lore from the original game, but Genesis comes out of nowhere, theres not even a real explanation in the game, he just happens like the game wouldn't be complete without this fight. Furthermore, knowing there are already two ways this world is supposed to be destroyed, finding a full third doomsday threat I begin to wonder, maybe we should just let this world die, the odds are stacked against the mortals at this point. Things come back to normal for the finale when Zack finally gets within sight of Midgar and you have to face his true final fight against the full army of Shinra and dies. It's slow, painful and totally fittign for the character's death scene. You already knew it was coming but finding out Zack just realized he and Cloud have been in a coma for four years, and he and Aerith still didn't give up on each other, the whole final scene is just heart-wrenching no matter how much you try to prepare for it.

A while back I heard about challenges to play FFVII with minimal or even no materia. Here's my challenge for the remake, I call it the Story Challenge. You need to work with the story no matter how detrimental it is to your materia and equipment. Since yu can't get rid of the Buster Sword, the Seraph Comb or Barret's gun hand, you must keep these equipped throughout the game. The real challenge is materia, nobody can equip any materia other than what they start with, with four exceptions: Cloud has purple materia in his flashback, so you can equip him with one (or two if one is cover or counter) purple materia on his armor; Aerith may use any green, red or blue materia; Vincent may use fire, ice, or thunder on his gun a la Dirge of Cerebrus and Ifrit because it's similar to his limit break; Yuffie is a materia hunter and may equip any materia especially Leviathan because it's from her story, in fact only she can use Leviathan. This means Tifa, Barret and Cid can't use any materia for the whole game and Cait Sith and Red XIII are restricted to their starter materia. Goodluck when the game comes out!

Finales: Game of Thrones, Inuyasha The Final Act...Wayward Pines(?)

So last week we saw the end of some series/seasons and I wanted to provide my commentary.

First of all, let's just get Game of Thrones out of the way. SPOILER ALERT, lots of people died. Sansa and Theon/Reek did not, at least I don't think so, they just jumped but I think they survived, but Reek will die later. Jon Snow did die, and contrary to many hopes he will not come back. I know the prevailing theory is Melisandre will ressurrect him, but if that were possible, why didn't she do that for Stannis? Not that I want Stannis to come back, I'm glad Brienne got her vengance on that daughter killing prick. The only other death I feel is worth picking out is Jamie Lannister's daughter. I mean, seriously, we have one hapy story going on, she found a man she loves, she knows her uncle is her father, she's cool with everything...and then she dies from poison from that Dornish bitch. I guess George R. R. Martin feels a character is no longer worth keeping if they are actually happy. On the other hand Arya's been blinded after getting righteous vengance on a pedophile, but she needs to learn a lesson about not giving into such personal hatred, the Faceless Men are successful because they have no personal connections and therefore no motives to connect them to the deaths they deal out; once she learns her lesson she will see more clearly than ever. Of course everyone is really thinking about Cersei's naked walk of shame(damn them some nice boobies!). But the real question is...WHERE THE F**K IS BRAN STARK? The previous season left him with the Children of the Forest and this season left him still freezing his ass off in the North Pole. Dammit, he's the Lord of Winterfell, Warden of the North, the oldest remaining male Stark, he deserves some frickin' screen time!

Meanwhile, in the shadows, a very important series finally ended, Inuyasha. I already mentioned Inuyasha in an earlier post, and after over a decade, the story has finally been concluded. Kikyo finally died, for real this time, but she was the only real casualty,all the other hero types managed to beat death, even Miroku beat his curse! Naraku managed to collect all of the shards of the Shikon Jewel, but it turns out, he himself was merely a tool of the jewel just to try and trap Kagome's soul. Inuyasha's love for Kagome proved stronger and they finally got rid of the jewel and Naraku forever, along with all of his incarnations and minions. Oh and shippers, not only do Inuyasha and Kagome end up together, but so do Miroku and Sango(they even have three kids!) and Koga isn't alone either, his betrothed makes an honest man out of him, and as for Sesshomaru and Rin, she's still a little young, but it's strongly implied they are meant to be as well.

Finally, I just want to say something about Wayward Pines if you're watching, yes, that actually was the truth, no they weren't lying to the Burkes, they were actually preserved in stasis for 1800 years only to live in the last town isolated from a post-apocalyptic landscape full of mutant cannibals.  Aren't we glad we have an extra week after getting our minds blown to recover before going back on that acid trip?

Singularity of Man and Machine

Today I will veer off of my usual entertainment reviews and share my views on something that may blur the lines between science fiction and fact. This subject is the singularity of man and machine, when cyborgs and androids will become possible and virtually induistinguishable. Yes, many talk about it, but I seriously believe this will happen during our lifetime for two reasons.

First, I keep hearing about medical researchers trying to make a chip that will allow for a direct neural interface, or to put it more plainly, controlling your computer directly with your brain. The reality is if you understand neurons and microchips, they both transmit information by electrical impulses, the only difference is the material they are made out of, but it is entirely posible to allow for brain signals to be translated into electronics so that people can operate machines as if they were actually a part of their body. The reason scientists are working on this is to help paralyzed individuals to be more independent by operating robotic limbs or using computers to communicate when their mouths no longer allow them to speak. This technology is key to breaking the barrier between man and machine and as long as altruistic scientists keep pursuing this goal for the greater good with little to no consideration for the possible consequences, this will happen.

Second, the other reason we're going to go Matrix is just how willing we are to accept the next big thing in communications. Consider this, when I was a kid, we still had a rotary phone and a black and white TV that picked up only the basic local networks, potentially thirteen channels, but really only five. We have gone from that to smart phones and widescreen HD televisons with cable and satellite not to mention the internet which came out of nowhere and has become integral in all of our lives. People will sand in line for the next iPhone before it's even announced, do you really think there will be any shortage of people who will upgrade from a touchscreen to surfing the net with their brain? I think not.The reality is it will happen rather seamlessly, people will barely notice when we cross the line. An executive from some cell phone company will agree to fund the research for that brain chip on the condition that his company gets commercial distribution rights. A desperate but well-meaning and altruistic neurologist with a morally ambiguous engineer will agree to those terms and with some young trendsetter who can't wait to Facetime from her brain and agrees to be the first user of the chip will be the four people that break the barrier between man and machine. The breakthrough will be more subtle than you think, no bigger than Google Glass or the iWatch, someone will simply annonce the next interface. There wil be surgery involved, but proponents will argue that putting silicon in your brain is no much different than putting silicone in your breasts. thousands, maybe millions will get wired in the first year or two.

Now here's the significance we need to realize, once we are able to interact with the internet like this, it will only be a matter of time before we live entirely virtually. Someone working on Artificial Intelligence may design a virtual baby app that allows virtual people to propogate online by mixing brain data to create an artificial life form that will exist only in the computers, we will upload ourselves and leave our bodies of flesh behind and the bnext generation of elite will exst entirely in the digital world. Think that's crazy? Take a look around you right now at how many people are on their smatphones checking social networks. It's not that humanity isn't ready, it's that the technology is just a little too slow. But it will happen.

Red Heaven of Alzoidea

I've decided to take some time to share an idea I've been working on for awhile. Red Heaven of Alzoidea is my working title for a sci-fi that I may be working on in a few years, I really have a lot I need to finish before I take on this project. Anyways, the basic premise is this, colonization of Titan the dominant moon of Saturn. There have been many theories about how it may possibly be able to support life as the most Earth-like object in our solar system. My version involves humans taking the most important species of animals and plants to support human civilization to terraform Titan in biospheres. On the way to Titan, the colonists pass by Jupiter, or rather through Jupiter, specifically the great red spot, which is populated by an alien species who call the red spot Alzoidea and themselves Alzoideans(hence the title, the Alzoideans revere their ancestral home and refer to it as the "Red Heaven of Alzoidea"). This species may have evolved from cells that came from Earth, now they appear to be something like a cephalopod species, with twelve tentacles, five on either side webbed like a vampire squid, forming wings that they use to glide through the atmosphere, however they can condense the wings and compress their bodies to resemble humanoids. The colonists finish their pilgrimage with some Alzoideans who settle Titan with them. Convergent evolution leads a few animals to becoming humanoid specifically cats, horses, dogs, pigs, and rats, in roughly that order, at least in hierarchy. The first three were pets, pigs were livestock, and rats were among unwanted pests that stowed away. Some humans began interbreeding with these humanoid animals, resulting in sterile hybrids, until scientists corrected the genetic flaws and made it possible for hybrids to breed with humans and each other. They started with rats of course because rats will always be used for experimentation, and then applied what they learned to others. Horses and dogs were popular among the wealthy eccentrics, pigs and goats were too poor, but the cats changed everything. When the cats first became capable of speech, humans told them about Bastet, the cat goddess, but did not consider how they would come to believe themselves divine and deserving to rule over the others. The trigger was hybrdization, the cats did not like their bloodlines being muddied by humans so they began hunting the feline hybrids. Their ethnic leansing escalated until it became the Hybrid War, the felines declared war on everybody else, enslaving the pure breeds and exiling the mixed breeds. There were god-like immortal cyborgs, but the cats figured out how to destroy them as well, displacing them and claiming their own power over Titan.

A couple of generations after the Hybrid War we meet Martin, a lab rat, literally. Martin is half human, one quarter rat, one eighth dog and one eighth horse. His father was a scientist, himself the offspring of a half-horse and a half-dog, his mother a second generation half-rat that was meant for further experimentation. Martin was modified to be slightly electrogenic which consequently also resulted in meroamelia. His father ended up loving him anyway and raised him until the age of fifteen when he got his full-size adult prosthetic arm. At this point in time, in fact coincidentally the same day, the Bastet Empire comes to take down the lab and capture everyone for the fighting arenas. Yes, fighting arenas, because that's how the Bastet assert their power, forcing the unsavory, especially rats and dogs, to fight to the death for their entertainment. Martin is able to escape eventually and explores the rest of Titan, meeting Alzoidean tribesmen, pig farmers, native Titanians, and a resistance group of dog and horse crossbreeds who intend to overthrow the Bastet and make a world where all species can coexist. Martin falls in love with one of their high ranking members, a beautiful quarter-dog/quarter-horse/half-human and also discovers their secret weapon, the half-human bastard princess of the Bastet.

Well, that's kind of all I've got for now, feel free to give me feedback and we'll see how this goes.

Avengers: Age of Ultron

Over Memorial Day Weekend I took some time to remember our country's greatest heroes...the Avengers!(especially Captain America!) Yes I finally got around to seeing it and it was awesome. It was action packed and hilarious. The only thing possibly better than  Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark is James Spader as Ultron, seriously the dude should get an Oscar. My favorite gag(that I'm still laughing about days later) is how in the opening sequence Captain America says "Watch your language" and everybody makes fun of him for it for the whole movie. Another interesting tidbit,with all the CG around Ultron and the Hulk, surprisingly the CG motion capture master himself Andy Serkis appears in the flesh for once as a vibranium smuggler from Wakanda.  Geeks will recognize Wakanda as the home of the Black Panther, a nod to a future movie. My only complaint: why does everybody use theri real names and never the more recognizable superhero names? Especially Hulk, who is usually referred to as "the other guy" we know who Bruce Banner's other side is, just say it for crying out loud.

This movie beins with the avengers working to help Thor retrieve the scepter of Loki which holds one of the Infinity Stones which were mentioned in Guardians of the Galaxy and it is revealed that some other stones have already appeared which means...wait, I'm getting way ahead of the story, let's back up. The Avengers have tracked the scepter to Sokovia, one of those generic Eastern European countries that is one nuke away from oblivion. As the team zeroes in on the Hydra base we meet the Maximoff twins, Wanda and Pietro, A.K.A. Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver respectively. They are working for Hydra and are supposed to stop the Avengers, but then Wanda messes with Stark's head and the mission ends up being successful-except that now Tony has an idea to use the stone to complete an A.I. project he calls Ultron. The idea is that the A.I. is supposed to protect the Earth so the Avengers don't have to, and since this particular stone is the Mind Stone which holds a mind, or rather an A.I. it seems the final piece to the puzzle. However, there's a misunderstanding in Ultron's programming and he thinks he's supposed to protect the Earth by getting rid of the Avengers. Ultimately Ultron's rason for being the villain is the world peace paradox that conflict can truly only be eliminated if there's nobody left to have conflict. Wanda can read minds, but she can't read Ultron because he's a machine so she and her brother work with Ultron to seek vengeance on the Avengers(the Maximoff family was destroyed by a Stark Industries bomb). Ultron seeks perfection by creating an organic body for himself, but as he begins to download his conciousness into the new body, it becomes a mind that Wanda can read and she reaizes he will destroy everybody. Now the twins and the Avengers have to work together to stop Ultron. Predictably they do save the day, but they look so awesome doing it. One last spoiler, the Vision comes in toward the end and plays a key role, and it was awesome seeing him in action. The reason I like the Vision is because back in my day, there was an Avengers video game which featured Captain America, Iron Man, Hawkeye and the Vision, which means that for the tail end of this movie, that team was actually together on screen, bringing to life something that was over twenty years in the making.

Now Marvel fans know there's way more coming in the next few years, and seriously, the next Avengers will be huge. In addition to the Avegners we already know from this movie, Ant-Man and the Fantastic Four are definitely happening which adds more candidates to the roster, as well as Black Panther when they pull that together, and Agents of Shield has also introduced Deathlok and Quake who could also join the Avengers roster, I know Quake was one in the comics which means Skye may make a jump to the big screen. Yes, Marvel fans, this movie was good, but it's only the tip of the iceberg.

Sword Art Online

Sword Art Online is a series similar to .hack, and yet, I would argue better, or at least more focused. Based on light novels of the same name, it follows players of online games, starting with the eponymous Sword Art Online, focusing particularly on one player named Kirito. Kirito was a beta tester who got ahead of the other players at official release because he had advance practice. Like .hack, the games of this series involve special gear that allow players to enter the games with all senses as if they were literally inside the game. Just as Tsukasa of .hack/SIGN ended up stuck in the game and in a coma in the real world, all players find themselves trapped in Sword Art Online. The first day everyone starts playing and then finds out they cannot log out. The Game Master explains the only way out is to win the game or die trying, and if anyone is forcefully removed from the game, their gear will automatically fry their brains. Many people die before they figure out this is legit and the players have to figure out how to escape on their own and the game becomes painfully real. Kirito makes many friends, especially Asuna and Yui who become his family. Asuna is a girl about the same age as Kirito who has become a guild leader and is known for specializing with a rapier. Yui appears to be a young player but is ultimately revealed to be an artificial intelligence that was supposed to monitor the players but went rogue and became attached to Kirito and Asuna who adopted her and treated her as their daughter. Kirito and Asuna continue to lead the march on completing the game, until it all ends early. During one mission, a guild attempt to clear a high level dungeon, Kirito notices that while most members of the guild are near death, the leader remains in good health. Kirito figures out that this player is in fact the game master who has integrated himself into the game just to observe players, but now that Kirito has outed him they settle it all in one final duel. Kirito actually wins and the game ends freeing most of the surviving players. However, 300 are still in comas including Asuna.

Kirito then finds out about a new game called Alfheim Online and one of his old friends from SAO tells him that someone thought they found Asuna inside the game, showing a screenshot that appears to be her. Kirito goes in the game and manages to reboot Yui as a navigation fairy who is very happy to see her daddy and sad to find out mommy is in trouble, and agrees to help find her. Yui leads Kirito to the central tower that leads up to Aincrad, the castle from SAO that now lies broken in the sky and tells him Asuna is at the top. Along the way, Kirito is guided through the game by his new friend Leafa, who turns out to actually be his sister who is playing the game in the next room at their house. Again, Kirito proves that through sheer will and determination and a little help from his friends and a little luck and hacking skill, he is able to find Asuna again the prisoner of a video game programmer, and free her, following a duel with the programmer.

The anime originally ended with Kirito and Asuna finally being free of the games, but the novels continued the story and now it has returned to anime with Sword Art Online II. The new game is titled Gun Gale Online and is quite simply a first person shooter like Call of Duty, etc. The big deal is that apparently someone has figured out how to kill from within the game, as in when a character is killed in the game, the player dies in the real world. Kirito has been content to pursue an education that will lead to a career in video games while spending his free time dating Asuna, hanging out with his friends and his sister and playing Alfheim so they can spend time with Yui. However, when he is contacted by the government to investigate GGO, he switches games and meets a girl named Sinon to be his guide in this game. Whereas everyone else relies on guns, Kirito uses a sword, because he has the skills to use it. This amazes and frustrates everyone around him, including Sinon. In the real world, Sinon is a school girl the same age as Kirito who once actually used a gun and killed someone when she was caught in the middle of a bank robbery. Her victim was actually the robber who threatened her mother, so it was righteous, but she was still traumatized and playing virtual sniper seems to be the only way to calm her nerves. Kirito can relate even though he doesn't know yet because he had to kill some people in SAO. Worst of all, he crossed paths with the killer and recognized a symbol from SAO, this player killer may be a player killer from another game, and this player may know Kirito as well.

How will this play out? Find out on SAO2 on Toonami!

Marvel's Agents of Shield

Sorry I'm late this week, busy weekend and hoped to see the new Avengers movie, did not pull it off. Instead I'm going to talk about Agents of Shield, the series that takes us behind the senes of the superhero movies and show ordinary people dealing with extraordinary situations. There are a lot of things going on in this show, but the big deal right now is the Inhumans. The Inhumans are a from a relatively obscure series about people modified by technology from the Kree from Guardians of the Galaxy. Long ago the Kree used terrigen crystals to modify chosen humans giving them gifts of inhuman power often at the price of inhuman deformity, hence they were known as Inhumans. The Kree abandoned these people, but hey kept on their traditions without the Kree and now a small group of them still remains hiding in secret. The really cool thing is, Skye is one of them. Her mother, Jiaying, was an Inhuman gifted with immortality and now Skye went through the terrigen mist and has the power to create tremors. Her real name is Daisy Johnson and she's actually a character known as Quake, who will some day join the Avengers, so that's cool. Bad news, her father is Mr. Hyde, though we haven't seen his full power, but we can connect the dots. He's not Inhuman, but he's...like evil Hulk. Then there's Gordon, the blind teleporter, and Lincoln, a doctor who can manipulate electricity, and Raina, a woman who aspired t be Inhuman until it happened and her body became covered in thorns and she has precognitive abilities.

Meanwhile, they have also brought us Deathlok and laid the groundwork for at least two other villains who will either come back later in the series or go straight to the movies. Along with movie tie-ins like cleaning up after Thor the Dark World and fighting with Hydra after Captain America Winter Soldier, this series is actually so awesome. The Hydra situation alon could drag this out for years, the whole cut one head and two grow back in its place thing seems serious, it seems like Hydra went through three or four heads in just this past season, and there will be another whenever the plot calls for it, I am sure. but for now, it's all about the Inhumans and tomorrow night will be the first episode since Avengers and the introduction of Inhumans, so it'll be good. Last week foreshadowed the movie with Raina having a vision about Ultron and Coulson asking Maria Hill to bring in the Avengers so the clean-up crew will have their work cut out for them!