Keiya

I'm a massive wuss, so naming every single video game that's made me cry may fill an entire page. Let's just name the most egregious ones that were massive tearjerkers: 5. The prologue of the Last of Us "It hurts, baby, I know..." 4. The ending of Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep Just... wow... I hate you, Square Enix. Stop making me cry so much. 3. The worst ending of Suikoden II To get the worst ending, you have to do the following: What happens afterwards is just soul-crushingly depressing. 2. The ending of Final Fantasy Type-0 Important note: before starting a game by Square Enix's PDD1 (the Final Fantasy/Kingdom Hearts team), just bring lots and lots of tissues, because in the best case scenario, it'll be a heartwarming ending (like FFVIII or FFIX), or it just completely destroy you, like this game. Just try to keep a straight face when Cinque starts crying. 1. The ending of Final Fantasy X Again, by Square Enix's PDD1. Probably my favorite ending from the main series, and one of my favorite endings ever. The ending is bittersweet, and Nobuo Uematsu's music just punctuates everything. The ending and indeed, the entire story, was so perfect for me that for the longest time, I hated FFX-2 for ruining FFX's ending. But, I've eventually come to terms with FFX-2, so that's all good

The Tales games are RPG"s with a real-time combat system that is not unlike fighting games. If you're coming from turn-based games, this might be a bit of an adjustment. That being said, the Tales games are easy to understand (though higher difficulty levels are still brutally hard), and with the exception of some bad inventory and inventory management mechanics, Tales is one of the better RPG series out there, and with almost every game being developed by the same team every time (except for Legendia), you have some sort of consistency when it comes to quality and style (as opposed to Final Fantasy, whose multiple directors/producers/writers create inconsistency). I'm not a very big Tales fan, but when I played the game at Anime Expo last month, I can appreciate the quality that Namco Bandai put in the game, which was constructed from the ground up as PS3 game (as opposed to Graces, a remaster of a Wii game). I'm getting the collector's edition, as well as the Millia figure. The only qualm I have would be not retaining the Japanese voice acting. Clearly, the Blu-ray can store all the voice acting (as we saw in Ni no Kuni), so I don't see why not for Xillia. They will be fixing this in the next game they'll be bringing over, though, which is the HD remaster of Tales of Symphonia.

Business-wise, the console wars have been great for the video game industry. When you think about it, the fact that other viable consoles exist has been great in inspiring competition in the console makers. Let's take Sony's steps in the past few years as an example. With the PS3 at last place, lagging terribly behind the Wii and the XBox 360, Sony has decided to improve not only the PS3 as a console by dropping its price and moving to cheaper SKU's (though removing backwards compatibility...), but Pub Fund, the indie game initiative, everything about Playstation Plus and licensing the Unity engine for PS3/Vita use have greatly increased Sony's goodwill among the gaming fanbase. In addition, the PS4's development and creation was focused not on Sony's ambitions to create a supercomputer within a chip, or with architecture so complicated and difficult that "it will take years to fully unlock its potential", but it was more on "making development and creating content for the console as easy and as complication-free on developers as possible". All of those things I mentioned above would not have happened had Sony not gotten their butts kicked hard by both the Wii and the 360. It taught both Sony and consumers that in business and capitalism, people vote with their dollars, and if there's a better alternative, consumers will always take that alternative.

I'm cool if Nintendo wants to buy Atlus. And they should I think. A fair majority of their DS and 3DS RPG lineup is Atlus-developed, or Atlus-published. Much like Sony should have already bought Nippon Ichi Software and Level-5 because of their contributions to the Sony consoles. Other than Nintendo, I'm sure that a fair number of big Japanese entertainment companies will be interested in owning Atlus. I'm not just talking about gaming companies; Shueisha, known for the Jump comics line, or ASCII Media Works, known for both digital and paperback novels, may be interested in a video game wing for their company. Whichever they is, I hope they continue making games.

I love the first VC, and I think that while the other 2 are on the PSP, they have added some real needed improvements to the game (with VC3 having a much more balanced roster versus VC1 and 2). Even though it was met with disappointing sales, I hope Sega will give this series another shot, either on Vita or the PS4.

Playstation 4 and Wii U, in that order. I'm mainly a Sony console gamer, and for Nintendo I just usually get their handhelds (along with Sony's own handheld). As with most other longtime Sony/JRPG fans, Final Fantasy XV (once Versus XIII) and Kingdom Hearts III were the two games we had wanted for years, and we're finally getting them with the Playstation 4. Not only will I buy a PS4 for those games, but I will buy any special edition PS4's related to those games, as well as buying them in both their Japanese and English releases (you guys have no idea how big of a freakout I can have over these two games...) As for the Playstation 4 over the XBox One, Sony's lineup of games just appeals more to me. I'm not interested in Ryse or Dead Rising 3, and Titanfall is a timed exclusive, so it will most likely arrive on the PS4 eventually. Not to mention that Sony Studios' top two studios, Naughty Dog and the bulk of the Japan studio not working on Knack and Puppeteer, have not yet announced anything, which makes them ripe to announce a game soon (SCEJ at TGS, and Naughty Dog most likely at the Spike VGA in November). As for the Wii U, I do feel that it's similar to my 3DS right now, where I'll buy it for just one game (Fire Emblem), and then it'll collect dust as I go play my Sony consoles. Not that I have anything against SMT4, or Animal Crossing, or PXZ, but there's a fair number of games on other consoles I want to play before spending more money on Nintendo games. I'm suspecting this is most likely the case for the Wii U, so I'll probably buy a Wii U when Monolith Soft's X or FE x SMT crossover comes out, and then I'll probably sell the console once I'm done. Or, you know, maybe raffle it off here at the forums.

Insert warning about spoilers here. Here's a couple of the boss battles I really liked: Nightmare from Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (GB/GBC/GBA/3DS): for the longest time, this was my favorite boss fight, mainly because the game demanded that you use nearly every single item in your inventory to defeat the boss' 6 forms. It required a lot more strategy and thought versus just hack and slash, and I appreciated that very much. Yami from Okami (PS2/Wii/PS3): Essentially a much, much, much more superior version of the Link's Awakening boss fight mentioned above. The final boss of Okami demands that you use not only all your fighting skills, but also use all of the 13 Celestial Brush God abilities in order to defeat Yami. Not to mention the best part: using the Sunrise ability to open the second half of the boss battle, and be heralded to an awesome boss fanfare. Metal Gear Rex vs. Metal Gear Ray from Metal Gear Solid 4 (PS3): Being a huge fan of both Metal Gear and mecha anime in general, this was just... lovely. It's like a taste of the third Zone of the Enders game that Kojima will never make... The first Elite Four and Blue/Gary Oak from Pokemon Red/Blue/Yellow/Fire Red/Leaf Green (GB/GBC/GBA/DS/3DS): The Link's Awakening style of 'using everything in your arsenal to beat the opponent', in turn-based RPG form. Although,in the Yellow version, you can actually just power-level a Jolteon with Double-Kick, Pin Missile, Thunderbolt and Body Slam, and that'll sweep both the Elite Four AND Gary. The Thirteenth Colossus from Shadow of the Colossus (PS2/PS3): Not only do you get to fly in mid-air with this Colossu, the way you need to take him down (shoot down with arrows, ride alongside it, get on one of the wings, climb your way to the weak spots) is just amazing to see and play.

Interesting that Nintendo is not attending Tokyo Game Show 2013 this year as well. If they did, though, I'd imagine they would steal the entire show.

The main problem with what the XBOne was doing not only restricted consumer rights and priveledges for games and hardware they paid to own (not rent, not lease, not hire), but they are also implementing it by creating a complete monopoly by Microsoft and associated partners (like Gamestop, who they are supposed to be trying to eliminate by removing used game sales). Moreover, more than half of the new "features" that they are trying to implement are simply replacements for the fact that you can't just take a disc and lend it to your friend. The main problem I have with Microsoft and its planned policies that these people are trying to get back is that rather than provide gamers with a superior service to what they have now, they are simply killing off the competition by programming it into their console. I don't see the reason they are unable or unwilling to offer a simplified version of these features together with traditional disc-based game copies. In fact, if they want more gamers to switch over to digital, they should keep physical media around, as a reminder of both the conveniences and advantages of digital media.

Adam Sessler gives this kappa a 3 out of 10. For me, I'm really, really excited about Final Fantasy XV. Of the FNC project, Versus was the one I was the most interested in, and I was really worried they silently dropped the game out of existence. Not only were they developing the game, but that footage was saw was undeniably impressive. What I'm really hoping is that they learn from what people disliked about XIII and not do it in XV (lack of towns, excessively linear, takes 10 hours to finish the tutorial, etc.)

Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch The decision wasn't easy, especially since both Fire Emblem: Awakening and The Last of Us were both amazing games, and seriously, this has been an awesome year for gamers. However, something about Ni no Kuni and its traditionalist approach to JRPG's, and essentially proving that there was nothing really wrong with the JRPG formula in the first place, and that a game can be successful even if it follows all JRPG tropes to the letter, really, really makes me all warm and fuzzy inside. And even if I'm not on my journey to defeat the Dark Djinn, there's still so much to do in the game: finish sidequests, play at the casino, train and catch familiars, or just lose myself in the beautiful Ghibli-inspired world. Runner-ups: Fire Emblem: Awakening; The Last of Us

Don't be. I'm just a software tester, and it was mostly part-time gigs.

Speaking of Level 5, I'm looking forward to the 2013 Tokyo Game Show, and what they've got up their sleeve. Level-5 is the kind of company that switches IP's whenever they switch consoles, and I'm wondering what kind of IP they'll be working on for the PS4. Of course, let's not rule out any Wii U games. As for the handhelds, I'm fairly confidence that they'll work on another Little Battlers for both Vita and 3DS, as well as Yokai Watch and the Guild projects for the 3DS. I wonder if any of their cancelled projects such as Ushiro will ever make it to realization, but as of the moment, their next big project points to either a Ni no Kuni sequel, or a new IP altogether. As for Square Enix, what I'll say is they'll never be able to completely please their Unpleasable Fanbase; they can give them $100 bills with every copy of the game they ship out, you'll get blokes who will complain that their bills weren't folded properly. The fact is that Final Fantasy, especially since FFVII, is the result of various directors and producers each having their own chance to work on new concepts for each of the series' installments. The result is a very diverse series with different mood, feel and style per installment, but also one that is heavily divisive. Compare to other long-running RPG series like the Tales series, which is worked on and developed by the same team since the first installment (Legendia being a unique subversion). That being said, yes, both FFXIII and FFXIV were pretty bad, because of terrible design, executive and production choices that the company have endured under the previous top brass. Hopefully, with a new President, and with a new staff composed of fan favorites directing both FFXV and Kingdom Hearts 3, we'll get some step in the right direction. As for a series like Kingdom Hearts... it's incredibly difficult to understand the story unless you play almost every game in the series... a problem that the KH staff is trying to remedy with the KH 1.5 and KH 2.5 releases on PS3.