Random Battle

I’ve just recently finished playing Bastion and the awesome soundtrack got me thinking about games I love and their music. A lot of my favorite games have amazing soundtracks, but does the excellence of the game make me appreciate a decent soundtrack more or is it the other way around? It’s probably a bit of both, each part being excellent completing the other one to make one especially enjoyable gaming experience. Nevertheless, here’s a list of my favorite games that have amazing soundtracks.

VVVVVV

This little indie game is a must play for all gamers. It’s a regular offering in all the indie bundles popping and often on sale for around 2$. The game is quite short but very enjoyable and the chiptune music fits perfectly.

Don’t let yourself get turned away by its simplistic graphics, it’s one good game.

Bastion

This one caught me by surprise. I had seen a couple of screenshots of the game and it looked interesting, but I was not really considering purchasing it. It’s only once I saw a gameplay video that I understood this game was special. The game features a reactive narrator who accompanies you in your adventure commenting on your actions and explaining the unfolding story. The narrator’s voice is perfect and never repetitive or annoying. Of course, the music is also excellent. It’s available on Steam for $15 and, as most indie games, will probably have deals for it every now and then.

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What is Blue Magic?

Blue Magic, also referred to as Enemy Skill or Lores, is a skillset consisting of abilities used by monsters. Most of the time, a character who can use it is known as a Blue Mage.

source

It was first introduced in Final Fantasy V and has since reappeared in most games from the series since then. The most common way of obtaining those skills or spells is to have the blue mage get attacked by the spell and survive it. There have been other variants, but they all require the player to fight the enemy with the wanted skill. (more…)

Back its in old days, Square, now known as Square Enix, was trying very hard to market its games and achieve the optimal appeal for all of its games. So much that it “tricked” players for many years into buying games by changing the original titles. While it is common for international companies to localize the titles of their games for marketing purposes, Square went the extra edge and made games look as if they were part of a different series than they really were.

Final Fantasy II and III

These are the most known examples of this strategy. The Final Fantasy II and III games as we know them in North America are actually the 4th and 6th installments in the series. Square had no plans to release the games between the first game and FFIV so they whacked the number so that consumers wouldn’t be confused. Fortunately, they rectified the numbering with Final Fantasy VII, but that left people wondering where Final Fantasy IV through VI had gone until fans learned that FFII (us) meant FFIV (jp) and FFIII (us) meant FFVI (jp). (more…)

Brands are powerful, especially in the entertainment industry. Releasing a game for a popular series guarantees its financial success. That’s why developers keep churning out sequels and spin-offs from popular games. The Sonic series has seen more than its share of bad games, yet the fans don’t hesitate to shell out the money whenever a new game is released. The same can be said for many other popular series, but two companies in particular went the extra mile to ensure the success of some games: Nintendo and Square. (more…)

When remaking Final Fantasy 3 for the DS, Nintendo not only improved the graphics (although that is debatable, I prefer 2D sprites to 3D pyramids), they also reworked the job system and implemented new quests. Some of those quests are unlockable via the Mognet system.

The Mognet is simply a mailing system run by moogles. When it was first introduced to the series, in Final Fantasy 9, the player could only receive letters from various NPCs. In Final Fantasy 3, however, the player can now also send mail to other players via WiFi. While the entire Mognet feature was optional for the game, a particular quest required the user to actively use it to complete the quest. The quest in question is the ultimate achievement in the game, it’s the Onion Knight quest which gives you access to the most powerful job class and equipment. (more…)