Mastery #20: Wild Arms 2 (Playstation)

 

    WHAT A SET & GAME. This game hits home for a lot of reasons for me. This one along with a couple of other JRPG's from the same era. When this game came out or actually when I very first started playing this game was during a time I lived in Arizona. So playing a anime JRPG that is suppose to be kind of like a wild west theme I was all over it cause it felt like my backyard was part of the world. I don't want to go into too much detail (I will save more for other blog posts of other RPG's) but I moved to Arizona when I was about 13. At this time in my life I was a nerd with closed curtains; playing video games that was not a sports game or Tony Hawk Pro Skater or really any kind of video game for that matter you were some what of an outcast. Not in the same traditional way you see in movies but more like you would lose cool points. To add an extra layer to this I also loved anime, which again, at this time in American culture it was deemed 'weird' or 'childish' or 'nerdy'. Any time I would bring up anime to anyone, I was always met with "Isn't that like cartoon porn?". When moving to Arizona I had never moved before that so being in a all new school with new kids was extremely nerve racking to me and it ended with many bus rides home in tears clinging onto my previous home & friends. I would eventually find my way into a group of friends that shared all the same interest with me, which if I am being honest my old friends didn't even really care for RPG's & anime. My new friends loved anime, games, jrpgs, technology, music, it had really felt like I had found my home. 

    

    JRPG's at the time were rare even during this time. We may have been lucky to find one or two at a funcoland or fry's electronics. So many times my friends and I would share each other's games. It was almost kind of like unwritten rule of some sorts. One friend would buy Tales of Destiny, while another friend would buy Arc the Lad, while another Suikoden game. Thus when one was done playing one we would loan it to the next friend while we took on another. The games traveled so many times I firmly believe I still have some of my friend's game copies (Sorry John, Jarrod & Josh). I forgot who introduced me into the Wild Arms 2 game but I remember borrowing a copy and playing it at my friend John's house. I remember the opening theme and animation was so ingrained into my head after starting it up. It wasn't too uncommon to see anime openers for certain JRPG's but this one has always stuck with me. Even today before I started this retroachievement hunt I would often hum or whistle to the opening animation theme. I also remember so many of my friends were always like "The 2nd disc opener is way cooler and the song is better". Well I never got to disc 2 until recently earning the cheevos, remember this was a time before youtube so I couldn't really just pull it up online. Although there may have been a time or two I had seen it before but just forgot. After seeing the disc 2 opener....I still like the first one better. /fightMe

    Before I talk about my journey earning the cheevos on this game the one thing I want to mention is, after all these years, I never realized how this game does anime openers & closers. Let me explain or if you want you can watch my gif I uploaded below. But each time you start up your file it will play the opening animation, which was somewhat typical of JRPG's at the time or even now really. You start the game and before the opening screen it plays the typical anime opening. But if you were to save your game and than choose to no longer play the game it would play another animation with a different song and a typical anime ending cut scene. This little discovery gave this game a whole new level of respect for me. Such a small unique detail that I don't often find anymore in games.

    Now for the cheevos. Damn these cheevos were a blast but the last three proved rather difficult. For the most part all the achievements for the game was for story progression which I really enjoyed. Along the way was some side quest things but nothing too major. Normally for these games I typically have a bunch of save files so if I ever need to go back I can. I also loved that the achievements also helped if you defeated the other 'parts' of the boss. This game has a lot of boss battles in it, but instead of a simple single target to a giant boss this game provides different targets to a boss to weaken it & earn more experience. Thus many achievements required you to do this & I loved it. Especially since you get some extra experience with it.

I was so pumped I got this much damage on Zavorg when I was playing. Looking back on it now I'm like, "Oh I have done way more damage than that lol"

    I started theses achievements back in July 2022 and was planning on finishing it by October 2022 but with the release of PS2 achievements & some of my friends got me sucked back into Rocket League this fell to the wayside. I assumed that I was going to finish it by October 2022 cause all I had was like 5 more achievements. Which just so happened to be possibly the hardest ones to get lol. 3 of them being defeating the 3 hardest secret bosses in the game, and the last one being complete the monster card album. I decided to hit up these last few cheevos when I got to the end of the game so I can explore the world & hope the bosses would be rather easy if I was high level. How wrong I was...Bulkogidon & defeating his Belly & Drill (counted as two achievements) was the first one I tackled. Luckily I had to find a special strategy guide for that one. The next two was the infamous Ragu O Ragula & Angolmois. At this point in the game did I realize that I messed up their leveling. You see in this game you gain levels like normal through experience but there is also a thing called 'Personal Skills' and this increases certain stats based on the personal skill level. For a quick example there is a personal skill you can upgrade called 'Up Hp' & after every level your HP increases more than normal if the personal skill level is high up too. (Don't quote me exactly on the naming convention please xD ). Well most guides suggest you level this up early on so everyone has a lot of HP to take on these bosses, I didn't do that because I did start the game with a guide at first so I missed a pivotal piece of information. So what else can one person do?

I know, I know, Brad technically isn't at level 99...but his stats are so OP even at 97 he was insane xD

    Get all your characters to level 99. And that's exactly what I did. I leveled up all my characters to 99 which still to my surprise the Ragu & Ango fight was still difficult. Without a proper strategy the bosses were rather difficult and would decimate my team. From doing previous readings it would seem people discussed which one was harder. Some said, Ango others said Ragu....my vote is Ango. When I finally beat him by this point he was the last one in my monster album I hadn't filled out yet, so finally when I took him down I ran around the house lol. I know dramatic but the set was so much fun & I really learned a lot more about this game. When I was younger & I played it understanding all the themes sometimes just went over my head or I just didn't really pay too much attention to them. This game will always hold a special place in my heart. Like I said before, just hearing that opening theme...

Mastery #14: Final Fantasy II (SNES - US Edition)

 

        

    Even just looking at the boxart of this game instantly gives me nostalgia. Something so incredibly simple just a red background and gold lettering and using the sword for a 'T'. This game & it's US sequel (Final Fantasy III or Final Fantasy VI) are probably my top two favorite Final Fantasys. They hold a special place in my heart. A place of child hood dreams & goals while playing these games. To be honest I would've loved to have this as my first Mastery but given time & other games that I just ended up randomly playing and mastering I guess this had to take spot 14. Now I am not about to bore you and try to explain why this game is so great, you can find a ton of articles or extremely detailed information on these games online literally almost anywhere, but what I will tell you is my history of this game & running through the Achievements. 

    

    Growing up in the early/late 90's was great. Seeing the rise of the internet, the revival of video games, weird candy, crazy colors, and the evolution of the cellphone. I was never very good at school work, most of the time when I got home from school I usually played games most of the time. Growing up with 3 older brothers & a one working Mom (Which she busted her ass for us which I love greatly to this day) this game fell on my lap when I borrowed it from one of my best friends when I was younger. His uncle would often play these type of games (RPGs) and really was my first introduction into the genre. Being a fan of fantasy type stuff when I started playing this game I instantly loved it. Just the screenshot above is like ingrain into my memory. Just the awesome color palette, the character design, the battle system, the music everything was just so incredible to me when I was younger. The only thing that really held me back when I was younger was my inability to read it. Don't get me wrong, I could read by the time when I started playing this game but it was fragmented. It wasn't until I really started playing this game until I started to really learn how to read. The love of this game made me do my homework (really just with reading) just to get farther in this game. I know inevitably I would've learn how to read but my love for this game & it's music pushed me to learn, so often I regularly recall saying, "If it wasn't for RPGs I wouldn't be able to read". Granted it's a overstatement to say the least but this game & it's sequel really helped me shape who I am today. (Final Fantasy III/VI holds a different more special place in my heart lol) 

    

    For those of you who don't know this game tells the tale of a dark knight by the name of Cecil as he is beginning to doubt the actions of the kingdom he serves. Punishment for his questioning he is sent on a quest which he assumed was delivering a package but was actually a bomb to blow up a neighboring village that housed very strong wizards/summoners. After surviving he begins his quest to save the kingdom he once loved and eventually the world. The story continues to follow Cecil where he will met friends, enemies, & faced with crazy boss fights, betrayal & even his darkest feelings. 

    

    Even writing this post I am engulfing myself listening to Nobuo Uematsu's music to this game. After borrowing this game from my friend when I was younger I remember playing his uncle's file which was at the end of the game & I remember beating it. I was so excited, even though I didn't do any of the work but it was just so cool to see the ending to a game (Before this I really only beat maybe Megaman or Kirby by this point). Even renting this game from blockbuster I often played other people's files...Yes if you can remember back when you rented a RPG from blockbuster normally your game would be erased by the person who rented it before/after you. Unless you're like me & just lied about returning it then keeping it another week, sorry Mom. I still remember at one point I gave up renting it or borrowing it from my friend it was time to buy the game. Truth be told I don't remember how I got the money I might have just asked my mom if we could buy it. I remember calling a handful of different places to see if any store had it in stock. One of the local stores I called said they didn't have it in stock but the person on the phone was willing to sell his copy. I remember being scared but excited on the phone and cautiously asked how much he wanted for it. He came back saying "$40" which at the time was a great deal in my opinion. (Even though today they still go for close to that price range lol) I was so excited to finally get my own copy of the game, I anxiously awaited my mom to come home from her long shift at work only to bother her to drive me back out to get a game. If my memory serves me right it was winter time & it was already dark out & my loving mother took me out to the store after a long day of work just to get this game. (I am really thankful for her. I often tell her this story too lol) I remember finally arriving and walking into the store, it wasn't a place I too often went too but wish I did after seeing all the games. The gentleman at the desk was a heavier set man & looked like what you would perceived to be a typical dungeon master. Not making fun of him in the least bit, looking back on it now we could have been great friends if it wasn't for the jarring age gap. And so I bought it Final Fantasy II, just the game itself, no box, insert, or manual. To this day I still hold that game in my collection....without a box, sleeve or manual.

I do have a copy, but right now my whole collection is in boxes since we lost my display shelves in the move. Didn't want to dig it out yet just for a picture. I will update when I buy a new display shelf.

    Earning the cheevos (RetroAchievements) for this game was a easy and simple task. The whole set consists of just story progression, which rightfully so should be. For those of you who don't know but the US release of this game was massively tampered with. The original Japanese game was harder, had more abilities, more side-quests and overall was a much more completed game. This game being released to the US being easier was in a attempt to make RPG's in the US more popular. Debatable if it really did or not I usually tend to lean more on the side that it didn't unfortunately. (Final Fantasy 7 on the other hand...) So the cheevos for this game was a much easier batch to mimic the US game version. I casually played through this game for the cheevos because of that reason. It was a blast to run through this game again, counting the times I beat my SNES cart & the other times this game has been released I have probably beaten it like 10 times. Ironically enough when I tried beating it again recently I had the achievements off on RetroArch so I beat the game without the cheevos on. I wasn't really mad that this happen to me, just more of a facepalm moment. But beating it a second time wasn't that much more difficult especially since my save was still at the end of the game & everyone was pretty stacked. Not to mention again this is the easier version. 

    I also took my time mastering this achievement, not intentionally but was because this was all played on my NVIDIA Shield + RetroArch. So many times when I would pick up and play this game, it was normally done on our main TV in the house. I started the achievements on this game back in April 2020, and finished it in May 2022. This also marks my first Final Fantasy game Mastery. It wasn't entirely intentional for I kind of wanted to go in order. But let's be real here, I should start my mastery the way I started the Final Fantasy series as a whole. 

P.S. My next Final Fantasy Mastery probably won't be FF III/VI. I want to sit down and play that one with Megan so she knows the story of my favorite RPG/Final Fantasy game of all time.