Pariah's Angry Rants: The Focus on the Community and a new crash?

This will be a divergence from my normal style of ranting... of spewing for a bunch of reasons why I hate things. Today will be more of an opinion piece about where video gaming is going and what I see in the future.

Take a walk down the street nowadays, chances are most people you see will own some sort of video game console. If you ask them their opinion on the status of the industry I can assure you again, most of them will say that it's a fairly healthy industry. However, there's the off-chance you might get one who has actively thought about it, one who has taken a good hard look at the path video gaming is going down. Now, the first person you've found, the one who mentions that it's healthy, they are the sheep. The ones who have been blindfolded and led down a path of ever increasing mediocrity. The second person you've found, they are a true gamer. They understand that quality cannot be eschewed forever. That games cannot simply throw together a 4 hour campaign with six levels that have some minor differences and enemy variation with a story that sounds as though a brain-dead howler monkey thought it up. But where did it all start?

If we look back in the past video games had stayed a fairly underground medium until around the Sixth Generation where it became almost a social abnormality to not play video games. It was in this sixth generation that microsoft took it's first steps into the video game industry with the release of their Xbox a revolutionary console that placed focus on the community through the use of it's integrated XboxLive support. Now, this in and of itself is not anything bad, in fact, being able to connect to others on a community from a console is actually a very good thing. However, with it came games that had easy access to online play for their titles thanks to XboxLive. This is where the problem starts. Games such as Halo pioneered the notion that a single player campaign can be an oversight in lieu of a, supposedly, badass multiplayer experience. This is the problem. This degeneration led to an overarching feeling of a reduced need for single player focus or even effort put into creating it.  In reality most of the blame falls to the consumer when it comes to the trend away from single player. But they aren't the only culprit. In an issue this great they couldn't be.

Our next culprit is: Marketing. Market research has shown that regardless of how good your game is, if it's not marketed constantly then it doesn't sell as much as other more marketed games do. This has led many gaming companies to spend their ever increasing budget of tens of millions of dollars on marketing their games over actually play testing and making the games fun and worth their pricetags. It goes back to the greed of the companies attempting to exploit the gaming industry to line their pockets.

Now we come to the final point. What I believe is going to happen to gaming, and, honestly, what I hope. Gaming will continue as is for another two to three years, until it gets to the point that even the common gamers, the sheep, realize what is going on and rebel thus resulting in a second crash. Companies will go bankrupt, massive ones such as Microsoft and Sony will attempt to cut their running bills and end long term services or hike the prices up massively. Then an even darker age of gaming will descend where almost nothing is made and only the hardcore fans of certain games continue. I, myself, will be unaffected by this as the majority of my enjoyment doesn't come from new games anymore, as is the case for some others. However, many young people or "cutting edge" adrenaline junkies who focus on the yearly release of Call of Duty will be driven away by the high prices. Then, after another year or two of this Dark Age a shining knight will appear, the proverbial NES to our crash, and drag us out with a brave new leap into the video gaming industry and it will be reborn with a renewed emphasis on the gamer and quality.

Hopefully this is the future, hopefully in 5 years the gaming industry can have quality as it did back in the early 90s.

Cheers,

HappyPariah

PS. As far as MMOs are concerned I feel they are truly the perfect specimen to view when it comes to how to deal with games that want to focus on multiplayer, as I've no inherent problem with games that focus on the community. Build a game that is fun to play first and foremost, one that can stand on it's single player game, THEN incorporate the multiplayer aspects.

Capture Card Woes

Hello folks HappyPariah here to give you guys a short update. I'm currently in the process of acquiring a capture card for recording video from my game systems for use on this blog and on YouTube. But I'm having a bit of trouble obtaining one that works for what I need. The internet isn't a source I am able to use in this endeavor, yet no store near me has been stocked with one that still takes A/V cables, it's all firewire and HDMI. Hopefully I will find one soon so that I can get to work on my first Let's Play project: Let's Play Persona 4.

While I am having trouble obtaining this capture card I figured I'd let you know about my plans for Let's Play Persona 4. Basically I am going to record myself doing my fourth run of Persona 4, I'd like to make it semi-interactive and have viewers choose which social links I max out or something, but realistically... I have no viewers and if the maybe one or two that stumble across the video haven't played it they won't know what person I can increase links with. So it's going to be an RPG Let's Play in a vein similar to HCBailly where I will attempt to entertain you with witty jokes and references during the game.

Not really much else to say, I guess I'll talk to you guys later.

Cheers,

HappyPariah

The Nice Guy's Guide to Failing at Love

Hello hello viewers and welcome to a HappyPariah's sure-fire guide! Today's subject: How to be a Nice Guy and Fail at Love!

Well the first thing you have to realize is that: it's not hard. 98% of Girls and young women have an ingrained view what they want from a lover. They feel that "Nice Guys" are stagnant, that "Nice Guys" will "lie" to them and subdue their own true opinions in order to avoid conflict. A girl or young woman has a subconscious grading scale in their mind that automatically scans a man as he approaches her. If the man doesn't match preconceived notions of "Badass" or "Mysterious" then she instantly writes them off as being "Boring". So, here's what you must do my fine, fish faced friend.

First: Be completely yourself. As a nice guy this should be easy as holding up a world-changing lie for the purpose of prolonging a relationship is already a sentiment you deem much too volatile and not worth the work. So whatever you do, do not act like someone else or someone you think the person might take interest in. Be entirely you. Next, compliment the woman or girl, but do it in a natural way, don't just walk up and say "Hey babe, you're hot." Work it into a conversation and make it flow through your dialogue. Girls don't like to think in relationships. Therefor the blunter you are with your compliments the more they'll understand and immediately flock to you. So be complicated.

Y'know what I can't do this shit anymore, it's way to complicated. Writing a parody article about how to fail at love as a nice guy by having every example of how to act being an actual example of a way to succeed is way too confusing so I'll just degenerate into a rant here.

What the fuck is up with young women and girls these days? Honestly, they are so concerned with "mysterious" men or people they think will make the relationship "fun and exciting" through "spontaneity" that they blind themselves to the people truly worth their time: The Nice Guys. Y'know that saying "Nice Guys Finish Last"? It's fuckin' true in todays society. It appalls me. I've no clue where they get this shit, THIS IS A WORD FOR WORD QUOTE I'VE RECEIVED ON THE TOPIC OF NICE GUYS: "nice guys r... well nice... lol... but their just boring and let the girls they like walk all over them without standing up for themselfs" That quote required several face-desks to erase from my working memory. Basically the point made was that nice guys are nice (no duh fuckwit), but they are boring (...uhm why?), and suck up to their love (no... fucking... duh). I'm frankly astounded by this tomfoolery. I don't understand how nice guys are boring! Is it because they'd prefer a date to follow something like this: a pleasant dinner from a chain restaurant, nothing horribly fancy, but still a quality establishment, followed by a stroll along some attraction of amusement such as: A pier, mall, carnival, etc. Or even a peaceful place where the two could be alone to spend simple time with each other like a beach, or plain, or knoll, or anywhere involving natural beauty and peace, then ending in a heartfelt discussion or in earlier dating stages personal discussion? Is that it? Is that "boring? Would you prefer your date to be: dinner from a fast food restaurant, sitting around their house kissing each other for god knows how long until one of his friends drops by to invite him to some shitty concert which he then invites you to? (That's not to say that physical displays of affection are undesirable, on the contrary, a nice guy's perfect date often includes an extended period of physical contact, just not sucking each others' face for forty minutes, or to say that concerts are not viable date destinations, a band that both parties enjoy could always be a great date). HELP ME TO UNDERSTAND WHY NICE GUYS ARE BORING?

The message of this rant is: Nice Guys, keep doing what you're doing, at about 27 women understand how shallow relationships with "spontaneous" guys are and desperately seek you and your stability out, by then you've got the pick of the litter and have probably already found the girl of your dreams. Girls and Young Women, stop being so idiotic, spontaneity might seem "fun and exciting" but it's really all just the same thing, you need to see Nice Guys for what they really are, the perfect specimens for true, lasting, stable, relationships.

Cheers, HappyPariah

PS. No pictures today because I am lazy and pissed off

Themes for your Day

This segment was inspired by a friend of mine over at Otakufyurlife.blogspot.com. He deals with anime in along the same format that I deal with video games.

I recently purchased Persona 3 Portable and have thus been swept back into my Persona craze. So today's themes of the day will all be by composer Shoji Meguro.

Waking Up:



Off to school:



Sitting in Philosophy:



Back to home:



Sitting at home:



Failure to do anything meaningful today:



Back to bed:



Hope you guys enjoy this awesome music. I basically just set the songs to what I'm going to be doing today, since I am tired at the moment and don't really care to think up a more general series of events.

Cheers,

HappyPariah

Pariah's Angry Rants: Counter-Cultures and their place in Society

Remember what I said back in my mission statement all the way back in the first post? Not everything I am going to be posting will be for entertainment purposes. Some of my posts are going to just be personal rants involving issues I am faced with in the world... or things that particularly piss me off. Today it's a sort of mixture of both involving Counter-Cultures and what they have come to symbolize in society.

A great example of some more elaborate steampunk attire

First we must define what a Counter-Culture is. Ask anyone who knows me, I hate hippies. I am absolutely appalled by them, everything they stand for, and their unbelievably lazy disposition all around. However, I have to give hippies credit, at the time, they were the first, and only, Counter-Culture. They rebelled against the societal norms. They did drugs, some of which were legal at the time, such as LSD, but that's beside the point, they had free and open sex outside of the confines of marriage, they sat around and did nothing with their lives, they fought back against Society and, probably their only good legacy, inspired almost every Counter-Culture to come afterwards. Therefore, we can define a Counter-Culture to be any Culture that knowingly and purposely rebels against the preconceived normalities in Society. Their purpose is to make people uncomfortable, they are there to make people think, to get their attention, and to question a fundamental problem they perceive in the world. Even some of the so called "Shallow" Counter-Cultures such as Steam/Cyberpunk are actually a call to the world to look at them in their odd clothing, to force Society to confront someone who is truly who they are inside, and to question themselves: "Who am I to tell them that is wrong?"

Possibly the most insipid, pretentious show on air

 
The Counter-Culture I will be dealing with most today will be Goth as it is what spurred this blog. Today I was released from class early and returned home while my mother was still on lunch break. She was watching a show on some channel I didn't bother to check named "What Not to Wear". On this show someone's friends send in pictures and videos of the person in what they perceive as "horrific" or "unacceptable" clothing then the show's two hosts go and "help" the person become more "fashionable". The episode that was airing concerned a girl who wore semi-goth clothing. Generally her outfit consisted of a black dress and colored tights, long songs, or fishnet stockings. While I would agree with the statement that it is sometimes better to have a slightly diverse wardrobe, I find absolutely nothing wrong with the outfits she is shown in prior to her "transformation". As the show progresses the girl mentions that she isn't goth despite how many times the hosts continue to call her goth. However, all of that is beside the point. What is the point is how these two perceived "fashion gurus" bash on the goth culture. I remember a quote from the female host where she says and I quote "Goth went out of style fifteen years ago." As if it were a mere passing fad that had no cultural relevance or meaning. Goth, while it may have been hijacked over the years by emos and scene and turned into something little more than a music genre, actually stood for something upon it's inception. Goth was the beginning of the "dress up" branch of Counter-Cultures. They are the progenitors of the notion: Force people to deal with it, force them to question why they believe it is wrong to dress like this. While Goth as a counter-culture may have lost it's push or point over the years it did the same thing that hippies did, it inspired further Counter-Cultures. Goth gave way to two of the most well-known Counter-Cultures: Steampunk and Cyberpunk. While steampunk is more easily recognized because of it's emphasis on the Victorian Era, both Steam and Cyberpunk have worked the same angle early Goth did.

Where do gamers fit into this? Well TRUE gaming can itself be seen as a Counter-Culture. When I talk about TRUE gaming I am talking of the pen and paper RPGs. As the sixth-generation video game systems, PS2, Gamecube, and X-Box, all brought video games to the forefront and eventually under the umbrella of accepted society. The outcasts who continue to this day with true Dungeons and Dragons and Rogue Trader and Call of Cthulhu and Iron Kingdoms they are their own Counter-Culture, but more of an underground one, conducted mostly on the internet. They rebel, as so may have before them, and after them, against the oppressive normality that we are all forced to live under every single day of our lives. That we are forced to bow  down to or be removed from the workings of Society. Those Happy Pariahs, they rebel against the bullshit and the preconceived notions with manuals and d20s in hand. They are warriors, fighting against oppression that most of the world doesn't even acknowledge, they just twiddle their thumbs, suppress their objections, and bow down. We do not, we will not.

That's all for today, HappyPariah

Pariah's Angry Rants: Gamers with a Vagina

Let me begin by saying that there are three distinct archetypes of female gamers. There is: The 1/2 Gamer (generally an anime fan who likes to pass some time with a JRPG or two, their lineage can be traced to the genesis of the PlayStationX), the Holy Grail (a true gamer, she enjoys everything from strategy heavy video games to table top games into Dungeons and Dragons and other pen and paper RPGs), and the Gamer Girl (basically every 13 year old adrenaline junky who thinks Call of Duty is the best series ever, comments on the deep story of Gears of War, and takes the "holier than thou" stance when dealing with "nerds"... but without a penis). This rant will focus on the last one, the scum pit of the entire planet, the Gamer Girls.

If there is anything I hate in the world it's people who think they are better than someone else for some arbitrary reason. Gamer Girls exhibit this in quantities that rival that of hipsters, something I never though possible, until I became better acquainted with the nightmare of Gamer Girls. You see, Gamer Girls operate on the same frequency as normal bitchy girls, but instead of turning their bitchiness towards a boyfriend, they feel the need to exert it on everyone they come across in a video game. The Gamer Girl will continually gripe and moan about how she's hit on in a video game or treated differently in a video game just because she is a girl. However, when she kills a boy she will whip up a one man shitstorm and start bashing on the guy that just got killed by a girl. What a motherfucking double standard. Then they go on to gloat and rant about how they are a girl who plays "video games" (as I hardly consider Halo, Call of Duty, Gears of War, etc. video games) only to bitch even more when they are called out on being a girl.

This atrocity began around 2001 with the release of the x-box. My theory behind the reason that the X-Box began this relies on two factors: 1) The X-Box was the first American video game console thus it was marketed specifically to Americans... the adrenaline junky, overly competitive, xenophobic ones that refused to buy a Japanese system. and 2) It was the first system with integrated online support, thus the genesis of games made solely for the online modes *coughcoughhalocallofdutygearsofwarcoughcough*. With this came the archetype that everyone outside of it hates: The adrenaline junky who thinks he's a legitimate gamer. It only made sense that such a widely encompassing archetype would eventually include both sexes.

An example of this monstrosity in it's environment... it fucking sickens me

 

I'm not a proponent of sexual discrimination when it comes to video games, the thought that girls should only play "girl games" and leave the FPS to the "men". I think that EVERYONE who plays these games regularly have some problem and need to go out and purchase a brain. They are really just sheep mindlessly being herded to the next game in the series without thinking, following the trend because "video games are cool now".

That's enough angry ranting for now. Now it's time for me to make myself happy again, and talk about the true Female Gamers, the Holy Grails. The Holy Grails can trace their lineage back to the days of the genesis of male gamers, back to the beginning. The True Female Gamers, they enjoy the thinking mans' games. They enjoy RPGs, RTSs, certain fighting games, retro games (true retro games, not fucking PSX), pen and paper RPGs, they enjoy TRUE ROLE PLAYING, none of this Oblivion bullshit. They are called the Holy Grail because, for one reason or another, there aren't many of them at all. The older games and the prospect of Role Playing doesn't really appeal to women as much as it does to men. So if any of you true gamers, you thinking men, you masters of the BlazBlue, you Final Fantasyholics, you Dungeon Masters or Dungeon Delvers, you LARPers ever happen upon one of these rare specimens realize this: You have hit the jackpot with this, you'll most likely never find one again. Treat them right, treat them like they wanted to be treated, like a gamer, just like you.

That's all for today guys. Cheers,

HappyPariah

DnD Update: On the Road to Brittania

Hey hey, folks HappyPariah here with another DnD Update.

Today we pick up where we left off last time. Archer is infiltrating the depths of the former Elven Stronghold of Traymosil. As he makes his way along the winding path that scales the entirety of the inside of the tree he finds no sign of any of the orcs that were supposed to be there. He returns to the group and they enter. However, their presence, and loud armor, alerts a patrol from far above. The group defeats the patrol and move up into an armory where Elijah finds a locked door that he opens using his Sound Burst spell to shatter the lock. Inside the group finds a book written in Elven and a small model ship. The group packs the items away and then continue. At the very top of the tree the party comes upon a pile of orc corpses and a single enormous orc in robes holding a staff. Elijah rushes forward only to be stopped by two orc zombies which are reduced to dust in no time. After a long fight with the orc necromancer, the group continues into a dining hall where they see the Elven Traitor and an Orc Boss. Elijah goes after the traitor while the others fight the Boss. The group defeats the Boss after an epic battle. Meanwhile, Elijah corners the Traitor, who reveals himself to be Elijah's father.  He explains that he didn't want Elijah growing up among the Elves, that they were overly indulgent and the only way he knew to stop them was to aid the orcs in their means. His father had helped the orc necromancer gain the strength he needed to fully resurrect Elijah's mother who had perished during child birth. Elijah would hear none of it and captured his father to turn over to the Elf survivors to punish as they saw fit. He told no one that the traitor was his father.

After leaving the forest of Elijah's past the group happened upon a boy laying on the road wrapped in a robe. Half of the boy's body was horribly burned. They took him into the shade of the trees and Elijah attempted to heal him, the boy's scars retreated into his eye and then they tied him to a tree. Fearing for his life the boy used his powers as an illusionist to send part of the group on a wild goose chase, ending in them accidentally tying two illusions to the same tree he was on, allowing him to slip out after they had disappeared. He was captured by Lohenngrin, the team's pet Pseudodragon and it's poisonous sting. Afterwards he was tied upside down and explained that his name was Artyom. The group attempted to beat information out of him but ultimately ended up cutting him loose. Artyom fell, but his hands and legs were still bound so he landed on his head and broke his neck. However, after he broke his neck the bindings on his hands and legs fell off, as if they were cut a while before that. As the group slept, Elijah, needing no sleep, kept watch on Artyom's body. Eventually the corpse stood up and asked Elijah to heal him. After some banter between a groggy Roland and Elijah, Elijah did heal his neck. But then the group threw him into a sack, leaving his head out to breathe, and tied him to their donkey named, Sir Gawain, who wears magical donkey boots that make it impossible for him to ever fall over. The next day the group let Artyom go, and he runs off into the forest.

The party then finds themselves at a small town. They are warned by the guard to leave immediately, but they refuse and get a room at the inn. After eating some extremely spicy food Archer opens the window and suddenly everyone but him and Elijah fall asleep. Elijah and Archer are then stuffed into bags and everyone is abducted. They find themselves shackled to each other and trees in front of a large altar. They are surrounded by people in robes. Samanosuke is the first to be taken up to the altar. Just as he is about to be sacrificed four figures in robes carrying large ceremonial weapons approach and the villagers run in fear. A fifth appears and tears Samanosuke off of the altar, dragging him off as the other four do the same with the rest of the party. After they had gotten sufficiently far away the four figures disappear, but the one with Samanosuke reveals itself to be Artyom who says to Samanosuke that they are even. As he walks off Roland asks Artyom to join them, as his skills would be of great use to them. Artyom agrees and, after a long and embarrassing stint through the town, involving criminal charges, brain aneurysms, and stakeouts, the group eventually decides to leave, as they are unable to root out the cultists. As they come upon a crossroad a caravan is passing by and the leader asks where they came from. Elijah mumbles something about the town with the cultists. The man looks around and says that there's no town near here. Artyom starts to laugh triumphantly, they had fallen for his trick again.

Afterwards they find themselves at the portal to the island of Brittania, Arturia's homeland, where her father was killed for advocating her Knighthood. Roland works with Arturia to make her look like a man then the group continues passed the outpost and into Brittania. On the other side they find a customs building that takes census of the group entering then sends them on carriage to the nearest city, a large one famous for it's markets. Elijah purchases 5 healing potions while Roland and Samanosuke attempt to swindle people out of their money buy tricking them into fighting Samanosuke. After the first challenger is defeated everyone shies away. The group returns to an inn, purchases a room, and goes to sleep, thus ending the exploits for the day.

And here is where we have left it. I hope you enjoyed this DnD Update. Next time we'll be avenging Arturia's father, and maybe even beginning our search for a crew to man our new boat.

Cheers,

HappyPariah

Upon The Echelons: Persona 4

Welcome to, yet another, new segment entitled: Upon The Echelons. Upon The Echelons will be my only entirely positive segment, and is more to spread the word about games that are absolutely breath-taking, yet have an embarrassingly small following.

Today's subject, hands down, my favorite RPG, possibly even my favorite video game of all time: Persona 4.

The Cover Art of the greatest RPG ever made

Well that's a tall claim you say, "greatest RPG ever made" that can surely only be a matter of opinion right? Absolutely not. To entirely understand what puts Persona, as a series, higher than most other RPGs right off the bat is the system. You are playing a role. You have control over what your character says and how he spends his time, within reasonable constraints of course. That's not to say it's horrifically open, like Oblivion. There is structure, the Persona series, 3&4 actually, perfectly balances the freedom and structure to make you actually able to play the role of a high school student. You are able to join clubs, make friends from said clubs, get a part time job, hang out with your friends, get a girlfriend, and many other things that I will explain later.

The main cast, oh come on this isn't a spoiler they're on the cover!

Where Persona 4 really shines is in the combat system. It works off a traditional turn-based battle system wherein every character gets one turn then every enemy gets one turn. However, as per every RPG ever made ever, enemies have a certain weakness, whether it be fire or ice or physical attacks etc, and whenever an enemy, or even one of your own characters is hit with an element they are weak to, it grants the opponent one half of a turn, meaning that they get one more action, but that action cannot grant another half-turn for weaknesses. Each character does battle using a manifestation of their true-self, or a Persona. Each character is stuck with their Persona as it is technically them, however, the main character, which you are able to name, but is canonically named Seta, has the gift of the Wild Card, allowing him to capture "Shadows" and turn them into Personas by defeating them in combat.

The story, while a bit basic on the surface is actually a very deep and involving one. The cast investigates a rash of bizarre murders which always end in the corpse of the victim being hung, upside down, from an almost inaccessible tall object, such as a television antenna or power lines.

The cast of characters is varied and interesting. No two characters are the same, yet they all work with such synergy that it's truly astounding. They are able to balance serious lines of dialogue, dramatic scenes, and humorous quips. The voice actors do a good job as well, conveying the personality of these characters with great talent.

Now we come to the best, absolutely BEST part of Persona 4, the music. Composer Shoji Meguro is an absolute GOD on par with such legends as Nobuo Uematsu. Every song fits perfectly with the scene, the battle music is fast paced, upbeat, and intense, boss battles feel that much more epic with "I'll Face Myself" blasting in the background, humorous scenes are relaxing and tranquil. Everything about this game's soundtrack is simply FANTASTIC. Oh and the best part, the game comes with a copy of the full soundtrack. Yep, 24 songs straight from the game, for free.

Persona 4 earns it's perfect 10/10 from me. There is absolutely nothing about this game I did not love. I've already played through it twice, and will be starting my third play through as soon as my friend is done with it. If you are an RPG fan and you haven't played this, shame on you! Get out there! Find it! Buy it! You won't regret it! If you aren't an RPG fan... why are you reading this blog? Oh yes... I forgot I don't do exclusively RPG entries... okay, if you aren't an RPG fan I can forgive it, but at least listen to the music, it's absolutely fantastic.

Cheers,

HappyPariah

Free To Play Freakout: Gunz the Duel

Welcome to the first segment of "Free To Play Freakout", where I will break down downloadable free to play games and give you my personal view on them.

Today's subject is: Gunz the Duel, a third person action game similar to games like Counterstrike, wherein you connect to a server and play solely online competitive games, with the exception of one cooperative game mode.

Now, in order to facilitate a fair air between games that will be featured on Free To Play Freakout, I will use a universal grading method factoring in universally accepted points of a good game, namely: Graphics, Sound(including music), Gameplay, Community, and Support.

Graphics: Gunz is a fairly old game, which explains their distinct lack of high resolution textures or... rather any identifiable effort put into the graphics. They aren't horrible, there is definitely far worse, but they are far from anything spectacular, or even noteworthy. There's really not too much I can say in this part, the graphics are just so mediocre. Gunz gets a 4/10 for Graphics.

Sound: The music is definitely one point where Gunz shows a bit of a strength. The music, while somewhat bland if you play it for a very long time, is definitely something that deserves mention. It is varied between the different maps and does it's job, it fills in the silence with something that isn't horrible to listen to, but also goes a step beyond, making some of the tracks even enjoyable. Gunz gets a 6/10 for Sound.

Gameplay: Gunz is a unique online game in that it grants you powers similar to gun-fu style action movies. Your character can vault off walls, run along walls, climb using their melee weapon, and do all sorts of other ridiculous stunts. These moves, while somewhat difficult to pull off in the heat of combat are definitely fun and can make combat look spectacular. However, the problem comes when you factor in the weapons you actually get to use. The progression is... linear... very very linear. Sure, you can blow a ton of cash and buy a heavy weapon like a rocket launcher or light machine gun, but they are completely superfluous and generally end in you never using them after their gimmicks are played out. The only real interesting gear is purchased for real money, something that really pisses me off. Gunz gets a 5/10 for Gameplay, the moves are cool, but the weapons are seriously lacking.

Community: The Gunz community is fairly active, yet not that friendly. Most clans are simply zerg inviters, inviting everyone who is not already in a clan. The community is a huge problem for this game and is worth a simple 3/10. There's nothing else to say.

Support: The Support category refers specifically to the developers support of the game. Gunz sits right in the middle of the road for this one, just as it does with most everything else. Since it's part of a large company, ijji, it gets significant technical support and new cash shop releases, as well as Moderator run events and those sort of things. I'll have to give Gunz a 5/10 for Support.

Overall: 4/10 Gunz is a decent game, it's somewhat fun to play and can be a good way to kill an hour or two with some friends, but the community as well as the linear weapon progression without spending real money really pulls this game down.

That's all for the first Free To Play Freakout

Cheers,

HappyPariah

Fragadacterlops: Team Fortess 2

Another day, another new segment, Fragadacterlops. This will be a segment where I talk about competitive online games such as today's subject, Team Fortress 2. This will probably end up being a more news oriented segment as I don't really play online games like this very much so all I'll really have to talk about is Team Fortress 2.

Odds are if you are an even moderate online gamer you've heard of Team Fortress 2. A game that has not only earned several awards but is also one of the rare instances of a "Love it or Hate it" game that does actually win awards. You see, there is no moderate Team Fortress fan. You're hardcore, or you're not a fan, as simple as that.

An illustration of one of the most famous snippets of voice acting from the game

But what is it? What is it that makes Team Fortress such an addicting game? Is it the cartoonish graphics? The online playability? The dark and often parodying humor? Or it is something else? Join me as we delve into Team Fortress 2 on the first ever Fragadacterlops!

The logo and cast of Team Fortress 2, from left to right: Pyro, Engineer, Spy, Heavy, Sniper, Scout, Soldier, Demoman, Medic

First of all, what is Team Fortress 2? It's a competitive first person shooter where two teams compete against each other to complete objectives. Generally one team will be on offense while the other is on defense, but some times the game mode requires both teams to both attack and defend or be a simple no-respawn death match. The players have the choice between nine unique player classes divided into three categories: Defense, Offense, and Support. This brings me to my first possibility for why Team Fortress 2 is so popular: The characters. You see, every class in the game isn't just a separate load out, Valve has taken the time to make every class it's own character with a personality, back story, and set of running jokes. For example the Spy's catch phrase is, while widely debated, generally considered to be "YES! And now he's here to FUCK US!" As per the "Meet the Spy" video made by Valve. On top of the sense of individuality that each class has as characters each plays significantly different from another. No one in their right mind would play a Demoman the same way you'd play another defense class like a Heavy. The amount of diversity is certainly a great point in favor of Team Fortress 2.

Next we'll touch on the online play. After all, a game can have brilliant characters, but if you can't play it, or it's boring, what's the point right? Team Fortress 2 is a game like Counterstrike in which you connect to the Team Fortress 2 servers which in turn give you a list of games currently in play, you choose one, then connect to it. So long as your computer can handle the graphics and your internet connection isn't terrible, this game will run perfectly. I've never once had trouble with connection or lag, unless of course my internet went down during a game, but that's my ISP's fault. The community is large and extremely active, churning out new maps at a very quick pace. However, that does bring up one problem with the game's community. It had a lot of elitist ass-holes, as most games do, but easily 25% of the game's community is this way. They are either the super elitists who believe that everyone else is the reason you lost the last match, or they are the people that think that Achievements gauge your skill and thus use illegal Achievement Farming servers to earn all that they can. This doesn't detract from the game too much, provided you don't mind muting a few people during gameplay.

Overall, Team Fortress 2 is a simply astounding game. I have never played an FPS more continually fun than it. I play this game easily ten hours a week, and coming from me, the RPG fanatic, that's saying a lot. Team Fortress 2 gets a 9/10 on my Real Scale. Remember, on the Real Scale a 5/10 is average, making TF2s 9/10 an excellent game. I'd suggest that anyone who is looking for a unique online FPS experience pick it up for PC... because the console version sucks.

Cheers,

HappyPariah

By the way, if anyone would like to add me on STEAM, my account name is Apolan

RETROspective: Final Fantasy 9

Final Fantasy, what more is there to say? Square Soft has a veritable track record of making amazing installments to this series... except for Final Fantasy 12... and Final Fantasy 10... and Final Fantasy 8... and Final Fantasy 10-2... and Final Fantasy Tactics: Advance... and Final Fantasy 7: Crisis Core... and Final Fantasy 7: Dirge of Cerberus...

No one is really sure why Final Fantasy 10 deserved a sequel over, say, Final Fantasy 6

What was I saying again? Oh yeah, Final Fantasy is a series that has constantly plagued it's devoted fanboys, such as myself, by hooking them in with superb games from the past, such as Final Fantasies 4 and 6, then dropping the ball after Seven with the god-awful and idiotically confusing Eight. However, it was apparent, for a time at least, that Square really did care about their fans as was made apparent by the release of Final Fantasy Nine. Nine dropped the whole cyberpunk and pseudo-futuristic settings in lieu of the more traditional Medieval Fantasy mixed with a little steampunk. Nine follows the monkey-tailed thief named Zidane and his traveling opera group / thievery ring, Tantalus. As the game starts up Zidane is treated to a briefing about kidnapping the Princess of Alexandria, Princess Garnet, during one of the groups' plays. However the plan goes awry and the group's airship crash lands in a forest safely outside of Alexandrian territory. From here the player controls the group as it makes it's way around the continent, visiting several colorful and interesting villages, towns, and cities along the way.

While the story of Final Fantasy Nine is pretty basic in it's essence, bad guy wants to destroy the world you want to stop him, it's the characters and the delivery and the subtle details that really makes this game shine, just as it did in Final Fantasy 6. Every character is humorous and likable, without being completely pointless, the depth and complexity of even the least developed of characters, such as Steiner, surpasses that of the main protagonist of some stories, I'm looking at you Squall.

Zidane Tribal, the main protagonist of Final Fantasy 9

But, a great story can only carry you so far right? After all, what good is a story if the game is frustratingly unplayable? Well good news! Final Fantasy Nine eschews all of the drawing magic crap in favor of a simple, yet very effective way of earning your abilities and spells. In FF9 a character has five slots of equipment: A weapon (for attack damage), a hat (for magic defense), an arm item (bracelet or shield for physical evade), a chest item (for physical defense), and an accessory (for spcial effects). As I have illustrated, not only is every slot unique from another, but what I didn't mention is that every piece of equipment you put on grants you abilities to use. For example a Mage Masher for Zidane might teach him Flee-Gil. So long as he has that Mage Masher equipped he will always be able to use that ability. However, while you have items equipped you earn Ability Points and every Ability has a Mastery Level, once you earn enough Ability Points to reach that Mastery Level, you will permanently learn that ability.

However, no game is perfect, and Final Fantasy 9 is FAR from being an exception. The most common complaint is the battle system itself. I am a hardcore turn-based fan so slow gameplay never really makes me irritated or discourage about a game. However, Final Fantasy 9's ATB is so horrendously slow, that a pure turn-based style where-in everyone takes one turn each to the enemies' one turn each would actually SPEED UP the gameplay. There are large patches of combat where no one is doing anything, the boss just sits there, and all of your characters just sit there. This makes the ability "Auto-Haste", an ability which automatically casts haste on the character that equips it, haste causes the ATB to fill twice as fast, almost essential for the later bosses who have equivalents in their list of eternal status effects.

However, the few flaws that can be found in Final Fantasy 9, and the large flaw of the battle system, do not detract enough from it for it to be disqualified as a great game. I give Final Fantasy 9 an 8/10 on my Real Scale, making it a Great Game. If you enjoy RPGs and you own an original PlayStation or the PlayStation2 you must go out and get this game, you will not regret it.

DnD Update: Pariah's DMing Failures

Welcome to another segment concerning my exploits in Dungeons and Dragons, aptly named DnD Update until I can think of a more snazzy name, pretty original huh?

I think since this is the first DnD Update I should start by describing our cast of characters before explaining what is happening.
First up is my character, Thorax the Dwarf Barbarian. He was excommunicated from his clan for breaking a sworn oath, he lived on his own for a long while, developing skills as a woodsman and hunter.
Next is Roland Durendall a human Marshal. Roland was born to a village of dragon worshipers and has always been a charismatic and likable person, which is likely the reason he is our leader.
Then we have Arturia Dragonbane. She is a human Fighter from the island of Brittania that left her homeland once Knighthood was denied to her based upon her gender. She is also the lover of Roland.
Next we come to Elijah Lightbane the elven Cleric. When Elijah was young his village was attacked by a warband of Orcs and most of his village was killed. Somehow he escaped and was raised by humans, thus his mannerisms and general attitude reflects humans much more than elves.
Our fifth member is Samanosuke Rylechi the human Monk. Samanosuke is from the eastern continent of the world but came to the west in search of his own path, as he has rejected the path of the solitary monk. His relationship with his master has been strenuous since his defection.
Lastly, is Archer the half-drow Soul Knife. Archer was a merchant who had the unfortunate luck of being stuck in an oasis village in the middle of a desert. When the group first met him they purchased some lightning lizards from him to aid a Shield Mage whose guardians had been ravaged by the desert winds.

Okay now we can get into what is currently going on.

After aiding Thorax to regain his place within his clan through diplomacy with the nearby Frost Giant kingdom, the group finds themselves heading south to the forest of Elijah's past. They were initially side-tracked when psycho-reactive spores from odd mushrooms caused them to hallucinate, but eventually they found their way to a refuge for the survivors of the attack. Even after all of this time the survivors were still as ragged as if they had been attacked yesterday. One elf called simply "Elder" told them the story of how the village fell due to a traitor allowing the Orcs access to the elf's greatest achievement, an impenetrable fortress magically built into a living tree. Elijah swore to bring the traitor to justice and to retake his people's land. The group was given a magical seed that was said to allow them entrance into the Traymosil, the Impenetrable Tree Fortress. Upon arrival to the base of the tree, Roland suggested that Archer, being the most dexterous and stealthy of the team, should scout inside of the tree. This is where the group now sits, awaiting the arrival of Archer's reports.

I hope you all enjoyed this little update, I know it had a lot of build-up to such a small update, but I really feel it was necessary to understand the different characters before I just started spewing out events to you.

Cheers,

HappyPariah

RETROspective: Bushido Blade 2 or The Legacy of Schadenfreude 2

RETROspective, a segment where I take a look back into gaming's glorious past and pluck titles to trigger my own nostalgia.

The Cover Art of Bushido Blade 2

Bushido Blade 2 is a game set in modern times revolving around an ancient feud between two prominent Japanese clans. The player takes control of several characters equipped with one of six weapons ranging from the katana and european long sword, to the nodachi and naginata. The game's real selling point is on the combat realism. There is no health bar, one hit is almost guaranteed to kill you. However, the character automatically parries any incoming attack, provided they are in a realistic situation to do so. The game sounds as though it is simple no? All you need to do is mash a little horizontal vertical horizontal combo and you'll have knocked their weapon into a place they can't guard from right? You are dead wrong. The beauty of Bushido Blade 2 is that with the inclusion of several styles for each character for each weapon comes many different fighting tactics and thus complexity to the system. For example a character with a katana may be able to use the forward, high, and iai stances with their katana. The forward stance would allow you a better guard from slower horizontal and vertical attacks, while opening up quick follow-ups to be used in the event of a successful parry. Meanwhile the iai stance turns your guard off completely, however it makes your attacks lightning fast, able to exploit any minor opening in your opponent's footwork. Regardless of how simple it may seem, this game has depth unseen in games even today... I'm looking at you Street Fighter 4 Super Ultra HD Turbo Remix XD Edition

However, no game is without it's flaws. The first thing you'll realize is: this game is hard. I mean, ball grindingly HARD. Sure you can power through the throw-away ninjas that attack before each duel, do a few warm up counters to nail down your timing. But once you get to another character the game has the tendency to grind to a halt. Without any difficulty setting the game at times feels as though it were designed for masters to play it, especially that cheating teleporting bastard in the shrine. There are times when your character's opening strike will be parried then followed up with an iai quick-draw to the chest, or spear tip to the face, or whatever manner of grisly demise you could conjure up, ending the fight in a matter of seconds. Of course, this makes the game fun. It's not a frustrating sort of difficult, it's enjoyable. You feel so badass playing this game that getting your ass handed to you is so stylish and interesting that you don't even mind. That's a very admirable quality in a game, something games like BlazBlue: Continuum Shift should aspire to achieve... No I will not let the Unlimited Hazama thing go, shut up.

Overall, I'd have to give Bushido Blade 2 a 7/10, above average, for pure style, the controls are a bit wonky and the execution could be better, but the style and feel of the game cannot be matched. I think now would be a good time to explain my grading method. I use the "Real Scale Method" where a 5/10 is average, as 5 is the middle of the road between 10, perfect, and 1, god awful.

Anyway, folks. This has been my first segment of RETROspective. I know it wasn't very good or polished or whatnot, but it's my first try, I'm still working the kinks out of my style.

Cheers,

HappyPariah

The Top 10 Most Badass Video Game Bosses

Below is contained a list. A list of such power and pure kickassery that it almost requires an FDA warning label to warn you of the degenerative levels of utter badassitude. Please, view at your own risk. Beware this WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS. If you are currently invested into a game that has the possibility of showing up, please do not read on if you mind spoilers.




The Top 10 Most Badass Videogame Bosses, ranked by HappyPariah aka Ken Bloom, in accordance with the bosses: Threat level throughout the game, awesomeness, difficulty, and other miscellaneous criteria that will be explained in their respective entries.

Number 10- Pyramid Head from Silent Hill 2

He's big, he's bad, and he's a sex idol (I shit you not). Pyramid Head is arguably the most influential and popular horror game character. Everyone has at least seen his iconic head cage and almost as many have experienced the terror of being chased by him through a series of claustrophobic hallways only to have it end in tragedy. Throughout the whole of Silent Hill 2 Pyramid Head is mocking you. He will appear to scare the fuck out of you only to saunter off as if nothing had happened. On top of all of that, he doesn't die. Try as you might, Pyramid Head never dies, he doesn't even acknowledge the fact that you are shooting at him. In fact the only way he ever stops his relentless assault is when he himself decides that he's bored and that he should just kill himself to get away from James (the protagonist of Silent Hill 2). Pyramid Head earns 10th place based upon his threat throughout the game, even though both fights with him are simply timers meant to scare you for a little bit.

Number 9- Kuja from Final Fantasy 9

Kuja is the very definition of "fruit". He meanders along in his manthong wearing poofy pants that expose his upper thighs and a belted top and sleeve combo that covers so little even a tuesday afternoon stripper would be embarrassed to wear it. However, this does not mean that he is not threatening. On the contrary, from the first time you confront Kuja in Burmecia, then subsequently get killed by Beatrix, flying in on his silver dragon you get the feeling that this guy is not to be fucked with. Throughout the game you keep trying to figure out what twisted motive he could possibly have for everything that he has done, but to no avail. It's only late in the game, when you are told the truth of Zidane and Kuja by Garland, that you figure out it's just because he is insane. His only purpose in life was to cause havoc... so he did, so well in fact that he actually DESTROYS THE UNIVERSE. Kuja is just a horribly badass villain that poses a very real threat from the very beginning. His only problem is... he's easy... really easy. I beat him on my very first try the very first time I played the game. If his difficulty were to be amped up Kuja would have been much higher on this list.

Number 8- Jeane Touchdown from No More Heroes

This is it. You've finally done it. Nine Assassin's down, there's only one left between you and superstardom. You go through that ridiculous driving scene eleven times because you can't finish the quicktime events fast enough. Then you arrive in the middle of nowhere. A lone man approaches you. He speaks and you recognize his voice as none other than Steve Blum, VA for Spike Spiegel, one of the indisputably COOLEST anime characters every, you pull out your beam katana and ready yourself for the biggest and most epic fight ever. Suddenly... his head falls off. He falls to the ground, dead. That's when she appears. Jeane Touchdown, your half sister. Her cutesy routine doesn't really phase you as you just got through killing a psychotic lolita baseball player that used her baseball bat to hit gimps at you from a conveyor belt. But something about her just scares the living shit out of you. THAT is Jeane. Jeane is NOT a push-over. If you aren't careful Jeane will eat your face and shit out daffodils to stuff down your throat. Jeane has earned her place at Number 8 based upon pure shock value and difficulty.

Number 7- The Sentry Gun/Doting Engineer Combination from Team Fortress 2

Imagine this. You join a game, pick your team, pick your favorite class, let's say you like to play as the Scout. So you get ready, choose your loadout, then zoom on ahead of your team. As you approach enemy territory you become cautious, surely the enemy is near. When all of a sudden, as you turn a corner you are immediately filled with lead and die. A Sentry? Well, damn guess it's time to be a demoman. So you change to a demoman. You go back to where you were and shoot a hail of grenades into the Sentry's location... but nothing happens... it doesn't die. Confused as to if it may have been already destroyed you turn the corner and come face to face with a shielded Sentry and an engineer aiming his turret right at you, you have just enough time to say "Aw f-" before you are dead. A good Engineer can keep one sentry throughout an entire game of Team Fortress 2, if that isn't a testament to the threat of these things I don't know what is. Also, of that good engineer happens to have the Wrangler you are going to have to pump at least three times as many shots into it for it to die, all the while the Engineer sitting behind it is using his Wrangler to snipe you then switching back to his wrench to fully heal the Sentry. Everyone hates the Sentry, everyone fears the Sentry, everyone respects the Sentry.

Number 6- Chariot and Justice from Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3

There is no build up to this. There simply is. And what it "simply is" is a horribly frustrating and damn near broken boss encounter. August 6th of Persona 3 has you facing off against the manifestations of the Arcanas Chariot and Justice, however, as the battle begins you only see one foe. You wail on it only to be dismayed as you see it actually split into two seperate bosses. Flabberghasted, you continue, focusing your damage to finish one off quickly. In a few rounds one of them falls and you turn your sights to the other... only to see it turn to it's fallen comrade on it's turn and revive it to full health. Yes, not only must your survive what is essentially three bosses in a row, with two at the same time, but you must kill the last two IN THE SAME ROUND. Everyone who has played this game CURSES Chariot and Justice as one of the most broken and horribly frustrating bosses ever.

Number 5- Wiegraf Folles / Belias the Gigas from Final Fantasy Tactics

You are Ramza, a chipper young Noble whose job is to help the destruction of a group of criminals known as the Corpse Brigade. In your exploits you manage to kill one of the higher ups, a woman by the name of Miluda. As you continue your job you come across a man, this man's name is Wiegraf. He is the leader of the Corpse Brigade. Milluda was his sister. His is FUCKING, PISSED, OFF. When you manage to finally defeat him here he swears vengeance and teleports away, the perfect strategy for every reocurring boss. He later reveals himself to be a member of the Knights Templar and challenges Ramza to a one on one battle. This fight is notorious for how difficult it is. In fact it is so difficult that there are entire threads devoted to simply developing strategies on how to defeat him. Wiegraf is a CHEATING BASTARD. He has Blade Grasp, so if you attempt to strike him with a bladed weapon from the front, guess what, you're fucked. He also has access to abilities only available to the Holy Knight and Holy Swordsman Job Classes... two classes that are in themselves exclusive to two characters. So needless to say, he is dishing out untold rape upon you while also inflicting status ailments with his Judgement Blade and Holy Explosion attacks. However, that's not all. After you manage to defeat Wiegraf, he decides that nows the time to surrender his life to the Lucavi, and he becomes a MOTHERFUCKING GOD. Yes, he is transformed into Belias the Gigas, and once your team shows up he decides that being a god wasn't enough. So he summons four demons to help him fuck you up. Belias will immediately start spamming the summon Cyclops on whoever is grouped up in your party which alone can deal upwards of 350 damage (about 7/10s of a Knight's [the class with the most health] health) meanwhile, his demons are throwing around Ultima, the single strongest black magic spell in the game. He's a dick, and takes forever to kill.

4- Hazama / Yuuki Terumi from BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger, and BlazBlue: Continuum Shift

Even though Hazama is only around as a mere cameo until the end of Calamity Trigger, he still has his aura of pure badass even while he's claiming to be "simply from Intelligence" and spouting that "fighting really isn't (his) thing". However, when Continuum Shift hits, ALL SHIT BREAKS LOOSE. Hazama constantly harasses every character you play as and makes his threat very real with several fights along every storyline especially his ever infamous Ragna v Unlimited Hazama fight where he disables your Soul Eater ability making your X button completely useless. When Hazama makes his full transformation into Terumi, by simply removing his hat and gelling his hair up into anime spikes, you can't help but feel intimidated. In the True Ending it takes an ultimate sacrifice by Lambda-11 to finally make Ragna capable of dealing any real damage to Terumi. But even after that he still goes on as though nothing had really happened. The man infected what is essentially god in the game with a virus and stole all of it's power, damning it's consciousness to a hell of unsolvable logic puzzles. Plus, Gluttony Fang is the most badass theme in BlazBlue.

3- Cid Raines from Final Fantasy 13

Plain and simple, Cid is a cheating bastard. Cid is a l'Cie just like every one of your characters, however, his true strength lies in how fast he is able to exploit his ability to Paradigm Shift, which he does whenever he changes targets. Late in the fight he casts a spell that gives him every buff in the game cutting all damage by half, then can even turtle into a defensive mode that buffs his defense even higher so that he will take somewhere around ten damage a hit, THEN after all of that, he'll heal himself. Cid is frustrating. 100% FRUSTRATION. That is why he is worthy of spot #3 on my list.

2- Nyx Avatar from Persona 3

I know Persona 3 already had a spot, but that game is simply fantastic, any RPG fan needs to have at least played it. On top of having the best battle theme of any game ever, look up The Battle for Everyone's Souls in YouTube you will not be disappointed, Nyx is badass beyond compare. Not even the #1 Slot is truly as badass as Nyx, however, a disappointing end pushed our #1 just over Nyx in the rankings. Nyx is the incarnation of Death, brought to the planet to harvest the earth's souls and reset the planet. Pretty simple and cliche right? WRONG! Nyx gives the heroes exactly one month to either surrender to it and have their memories erased so they can live in peace untile the earth is effectively destroyed or resist and live in despair until they die. Needless to say they choose the ass-kicking route. However, even when you manage to get passed some extremely bullshit noob traps that come into play about ONE HOUR INTO THE FIGHT, yes this fight is easily the longest battle in any RPG, counting out Yiazmat as setting gambits can effectively make FF12 play itself, and drain Nyx's health to zero all it does is make it slightly discomforted and decide to destroy the earth now. Thus begins the most idiotic scene in any RPG ever. The main character, Minato, flies into the air after Nyx and enters a giant womb like thing, where he must fight the fetus of death itself. As Minato get's struck down and almost killed everyone that Minato has befriended in the game, via the Social Links system, prays for his safety and thus causes him to end death... with a Shining Finger attack a'la G Gundam.. only it's literally just a shining finger... However, even though Minato does save the world, Nyx still get's the last laugh as Minato ends up dead in Aegis' arms a few months afterwards during the school graduation ceremony. Not to mention, during the entire fight against Nyx it shifts it's Arcana weakness and strength, and with every shift comes a disturbing and awesome quote such as: "The Arcana is the means by which all is revealed. Celebrate life's grandeur... it's brilliance... it's magnificence." or "The moment man devoured the fruit of knowledge, he sealed his fate. Entrusting his future to the cards man clings to a dim hope. Yet the Arcana is the means by which all is revealed. Beyond the beaten path lies the absolute end. It matters not who you are, death awaits you."

And now, for the number one most badass boss in any game ever:

1- Kefka Palazzo from Final Fantasy 6

I'm sure some of you are calling out "FAN BOY!" right now... and well that's partly true. I am a Kefka fan boy. But that doesn't detract from how simply maniacally badass Kefka is. The man commits mass homicide by poisoning an entire kingdom's water. He betrays his King, Gehstal, and his peer, General Leo. HE REFORMS THE FACE OF THE PLANET USING HIS POWERS AS A DEMI-GOD. Then you must fight your way up an enormous, twisted tower to face him at it's apex. You must fight a psychotic demi-god whose only purpose in life is to make things die or destroy everything in sight. What makes him better than Kuja in that respect is that Kuja really has no motivation, he says "I'm going to die some day, so I'll take everyone with me." Kefka has motivation, he wants to see things die, his madness has a method to it, he was made insane by untested experiments, but they also granted him the strength to procure the abilities of a demi-god. Also, as Kuja just destroyed things, Kefka remade them, showing a much greater power than Kuja could have ever had.

Well that's it for now folks. I sure hope that you have enjoyed my list of the top 10 most badass bosses in videogames. Seeya next time.

Cheers,

HappyPariah

The Purpose of Pariah's Musings

Hello, hello folks. I am HappyPariah, or Pariah if you'd prefer. This post's job is as the title states, to outline my purposes for making and maintaining this blog. I hope that you all enjoy what I will have to say in the future, should you decide that you are so interested after taking a peak at why this blog exists.

My foremost reason for creating this is to have a place to rant to myself. I am not expecting many people to read this or care even if they do. But if  some people do find what I have to say entertaining then it's all the better. Most of my rants will center upon things about video games, as they are my main form of entertainment, however some will touch into anime, society, politics, or just my life.

A secondary reason I have created this blog is as a sort of stepping stone to larger things. This is a low secondary, and is more used to explain my ambition to you, the reader. I would not mind being a sort of internet personality at all, though I will hardly actively pursue that echelon. In simpler terms, if it happens it happens.

So that is pretty much all I have to say about this. Those are my two reasons for blogging, take them or leave them. If this seems interesting to you, please bookmark this, or do whatever it is kid's these days do to save a page for easy access.