It’s no secret that Nobuo Uematsu, the legendary composer behind the classic Final Fantasy games, likes to rock. For about seven years, Uematsu played keyboard in the face-melting progressive metal group known to us mortals as The Black Mages. But after three albums, it seems the super group has disbanded as of late last year.

Was this the end for Uematsu’s rock career? Far from it! In fact, he’s already working on a new project in the same vein. Enter the Earthbound Papas. No, they don’t cover songs from the SNES classic, Earthbound. Instead, they cover various works from Uematsu’s career (including, but not limited to Final Fantasy) and perform new material. (more…)

Despite the growing list of new games coming out each year, we all have our personal gaming favourites that we return to time and time again.

There are some some obvious reasons for returning to classic games, but the aspect of “gaming familiarity” is gaining momentum: as development teams are taking tested and successful gameplay elements and using them as a format to improve experiences in a brand new game.

(more…)

Final Fantasy VII is one of the most celebrated JRPGs of all time. It is even credited by most as the game that popularized the genre outside of Japan. Though there are varying opinions on how the gameplay actually stacks up against other JRPGs, few can dispute the impact the game had. Cutting to the chase, making any kind of sequel was considered “a big deal”.

Square knew this, of course, and dumped in a lot of money to make this movie as eye-poppingly gorgeous as possible. Even though the movie is now quite a few years old, the CGI is still impressive to look at. On top of that, the soundtrack is fantastic. But what of the story?

(more…)

"Not a representation of the idea"

I played a decent amount of Action RPGs in 2008. Among these were games such as “The World Ends With You”, “Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core”, and “Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates” (subtitle within a subtitle? Yeah… they went there!) to name a few. At some point during the year, playing these games got my creative juices flowing. My brain gave birth to an idea and I felt compelled to write it down. There it sat, alone inside a notebook. But today, faithful readers, I will share with you my dream.

(more…)