Monday Gaming Diary: I LIVE!

I apologize for the complete lack of posts last week. Streptococcus decided it would choose Monday to invade my throat and I was left fairly comatose to the world for about four days. I wasn’t entirely unproductive, though. I read the first two Hunger Games books in two days and played lots of Final Fantasy Origins on my PSPgo.

Final Fantasy Origins is a bit different from what I’ve played of the original Final Fantasy on my iPad. The iPad version only offers one difficulty level, and it sits somewhere between the Normal and Easy modes on Origins. Hardly any of the item locations contain the same items as Origins, and of course, nothing costs the same. I probably would have continued playing on my iPad if I didn’t hate the controls so much. The placement of the virtual d-pad is just flat awkward and there are no options to move it. So to Origins I go.

I started two games, one on Normal and one on Easy so I could feel the differences. Holy cow, Normal mode is unbelievably punishing. I love barely surviving a boss fight just to die on my way out of the dungeon. I would heal myself if I had any frickin’ magic. Oh and Red Mage is so dang useless. He couldn’t hit the broadside of a Buick with his attacks. And then there’s his weak spell casting. Useless dude, absolutely useless. Sadly though, Easy mode is a complete polar opposite. It should be called “Win” mode instead of Easy, because unless you’re a complete idiot, you can win every fight the first time. You can still die if you try to be invincible and never heal yourself, but the amount of magic the mages get is insane, so you never run out of spells to cast. I’ve stopped needing to buy potions a long time ago, and I still haven’t gotten the first Crystal. Middle ground, people. Middle ground.

In stack of shame news, I’m still plugging away at Resistance. This has taken me far longer than planned, thanks to distractions like Final Fantasy Origins and the demo for Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning. According to the IGN Wiki that I use to monitor my progress–the game has no Trophies, so I could care less about using a guide for completionist purposes–I have two chapters left, and thank God. I find the overall story to be intriguing, but damn the game feels unnecessarily drawn out. I thought it was over twice already just to be sent out somewhere else. I have to, HAVE TO beat it tonight, because tomorrow is Final Fantasy XIII-2 day, and the start of a fresh season of strategy guide reviews.

Can you smell the excitement? It smells like beautiful, beautiful collector’s editions of guides.