Ni no Kuni II: A Review

Christmas is always the best time for catching up on all the games I missed, and one such game that I was able to obtain thanks to Christmas of 2018 was Ni no Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom.  Though I was a big fan of the first game on the PS3, I’ll admit I was rather doubtful as to how the newest entry in the series would turn out.  As far as I could tell, none of the first game’s original cast of characters was returning, leading me to believe from the start that this game would be a bit…different.

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Knights of the Round is Overpowered (and I’m Glad)

In the near past, I had been working through my second playthrough of the amazing Final Fantasy VII, a PS1 classic that surely needs no introduction.  While I adore this game and am happy to say it is one of the few games I went into with high expectations, and was not disappointed, I gotta say I hate the final boss.  The first part, Jenova-Synthesis, is fine.  Bizarro Sephiroth is really…bizarre, but not that bad once I started fighting this monstrosity properly.  But the weirdly-named Safer Sephiroth (what makes him so safe?) is pure agony because of the super boring, super long, Supernova attack.

Fun with FF7’s Chocobo Breeding

When I play video games, I usually enjoy focusing on the main game first and foremost.  Anything outside that, more often than not, feels like a waste of my time.  And yet, when I give said diversions a chance, they often turn out to be much more fun than I would have expected.  A recent example was Final Fantasy VIII’s Triple Triad, a deceptively simple card game that ended up being way more addicting than I ever could have imagined.  The newest story I have to tell pertains to the Chocobo breeding in Final Fantasy VII.

New Eiffel Tower T-Shirt Design!

G’day, folks!  Just thought I’d share with you all a new t-shirt design I added over on my Spreadshirt Marketplace.  I actually haven’t added any designs in over a year or so, but I finally had some inspiration.  And it all started with a little piece of fan art I did…

The Duck Dreams of SCP-173

The night of 4/16/19, the Duck had a spooky dream courtesy of a PC game called SCP: Containment Breach.  If you’re not familiar, the SCP Foundation is a fictional group that basically collects and studies anomalous creatures and objects.  Kind of like the TV series, Warehouse 13.  But scarier.  This particular dream featured SCP-173, a statue that moves at incredible speeds as long as you aren’t looking at it.  (If you’re thinking that they stole the idea from Dr. Who’s Weeping Angels, well, SCP-173 was actually created first, so…)

Listmas 2018: Piano Songs (Past and Future)

Since last year, the Duck has returned to the piano with a renewed determination.  In that time, I have taught myself six songs, all of which I recorded and uploaded to our Virtual Bastion Youtube channel.  Those videos have also been posted on my blog and listed below, for added convenience and exposure.

Day 20: Favorite Video Game Genre

Okay, so we’re two-thirds of the way through the 30 days’ worth of video game posts.  And I still haven’t found a more eloquent way of describing that.  Anyway, we’ve got another “what’s your favorite something-or-other” topic to discuss, my favorite game genre.  As usual, I find this to be a pretty difficult question indeed because I have a wide variety of favorite games spanning several different genres.

Top 3 Songs from Crash Bandicoot 3

Another top songs post because, well, why not?  After completing the N. Sane Trilogy with the third and final game, Crash Bandicoot: Warped, I thought I’d share with you all my top 3 songs from the game  I’m rather tired so this might be a little short, but just as musically informative.

Piano Time: The Last Travel

For probably a few months, the Duck has been hard at work relearning a song I used to semi-know on the piano.  It was The Last Travel, a beautiful song in an…okay game.  At long last, I was finally able to record the full song (minus the violin), which meant not only learning one of my toughest songs yet (the other is It’s Raining Somewhere Else), but learning to sing whilst playing the piano!  Somehow, I managed, and my finished work is below….  Enjoy!

Top 6 Songs from Crash Bandicoot

Not so very long ago, I finally had the pleasure of playing the original Crash Bandicoot game thanks to the N. Sane Trilogy on the PlayStation 4.  As you may have noticed by now, I enjoy listing my favorite video game music, and I certainly couldn’t ignore the very first Crash Bandicoot game.  Just keep in mind that this list includes music from the updated soundtrack, not the original one from the PS1.  But seriously, you can’t deny that Vicarious Visions did an excellent job remaking this game in all respects, music included!  And I’m doing a “top 6” list because I wanted to include an…