Anya

Hero Origin Not Fade Away Reprise

Adam's plan is questionable, but there's no rational way to say he was easy. He beat up Buffy ever time they fought till the end. She didn't even stand a chance. Having to resort to something as drastic as that Uber Buffy spell means he isn't easy. When it comes to physical one on one fights, Adam is probably her toughest foe. Him or Glory.

The lifestream saves the planet from the Meteor. The meteor doesn't actually hit you know. That's why there's no impact crater 500 years later. The lifestream destroyed the meteor and Holy made the people disappear. If Holy had worked why would the Lifestream be needed? It should have stopped the meteor, even if it decided to kill people. The point of the lifestream is that Holy failed...if it had worked there wouldn't be a need for it. And we know Holy didn't just make people disapear. It hits the Highwind and does nothing to them. What would the point be to Bugenhagen saying Holy would have to make a choice about the human race if it doesn't do it? The comment adds suspense. It does make a choice though and it decides that meteor is the threat and goes after it. If "having the opposite effect" was a translation error, you might as well cut that entire conversation out. The line is important because it establishes why Holy failed(it was too late) and points out that the threat goes beyond Midgar. And what the hell even is the point of Holy if it doesn't do anything at all in the game? That wouldn't make any sense. At least the ending with all the people gone, like it or hate it, makes sense and ties the game together. It does do something, it just doesn't work. The point of it is to give the player a clear cut way of stopping Sephiroth for the final part of the game as well as making it more exciting when the lifestream ends up saving the day in the end. The ending makes perfect sense the way I see it. They summon Holy but it is too late(which is something they bring up the possibility of earlier). However the spirit of everything that lived before comes in and saves the day. In the end the very thing Sephiroth tried to abuse and manipulate is his undoing. There's no people seen in the quick shot 500 years later because there doesn't have to be, the point is just to be a shot of nature. The children laughing after it tells you people lived on.

I've never understood how anyone could watch the ending and get the impression that Holy helped Meteor or whatever. It looks quite clear to me that it tried to stop it but Meteor was simply too strong and pushed through. I've always thought the "opposite effect" thing was a mistranslation. The full quote is "It's too late for Holy. Meteor is approaching the planet. Holy is having the opposite effect. Forget Midgar we've got to worry about the planet". The part about it being too late makes no sense if you go with "Holy decided humans are evil" scenario. The time it was unleashed has nothing to do with it if it's not working on purpose. I also don't understand why the planet would be in danger if that was the case. If it's wiping out humans to protect the planet...why would the entire planet be in danger then? If it's intelligent enough to realize humans are a threat surely it's not going to take them out while also putting the entire planet at risk. If the end is supposed to be that Holy decides humanity is bad and helps Meteor then what's the point of the Lifestream part? I think Red means "Meteor is approaching, Holy isn't stopping it like we thought it would". It's clear when Bugenhagen says all bad things will just disapear he didn't mean literally, or if he did he was mistaken. Holy hits the Highwind and even pushes it away and none of the people inside disapear or vaporize. It also can't apparently just make Meteor disapear. It would be interesting to see how the Japanese translation is worded. Also I can't wait to see what kind of light Advent Children sheds on this issue.

I take Adam pretty seriously as a threat. He looks really strong in all his appearances. The problem with his plan is that zombie Walsh, zombie Angleman and cyber Forest look extremely dumb. I really like the actual plan, about setting up the soldiers, the demons and Buffy so it has a bunch of parts. That's pretty clever. It's just that once you see what he's going to make it's hard to take serious. It's also too long term. With FE it's ubies are nearly ready, Wilkins actually turns into a giant snake, Glory is seconds away from returning home, and so on. He is working on getting his army so he can then work on world domination. The feeling isn't all that urgent.

Not really. Maybe on a technical level, but that's it. RPG gameplay mechanics and storytelling hasn't changed much since FF VII, so the only real improvement is graphics and that doesn't really matter a whole lot. A misconception I always see VII haters make is that the big cutscenes in FF VII are loved because of the graphics. If that was the case the game wouldn't have been so huge past 1998. It's not nostaglia either. What makes those CGI scenes so good is the imagry and the direction, not the technical effects. Like take the intro scene. It's not just a CGI view of Midgar. The way it starts off in the stars and goes down to the city, then zooms out to the logo and over the train is just an awesome sight. The graphics are way outdated and borderline ugly now, but it's still impressive and engaging because of the way it's presented. A lot of game developers don't get that there's more to doing a cinametic game than just having the best, most detailed graphics. I don't think Square's done a better job of it since VII either.

Adam's voice makes up for the silly costume.

Glory's minions are really cool. I love it when she throws her shoe at one, and the Bob Barker thing in Intervention. Adam is so underrated. Why do people hate him?

The thing about Shenmue is that not only is it slow paced, the story isn't interesting either. It'd be one thing if you were wandering around solving this really fascinating mystery or something. Aimlessly walking around trying to find out if anyone saw a black car just doesn't make for thrilling gaming.

XBX GRAND THEFT AUTO PACK 1,024,687

Nah, it's still fun. They really should do something about random battles though. KH's battle system gets really old, because of how the baddies respawn. That is worse than random battles.

NPD. PS2 GRAND THEFT AUTO:VICE 5,973,585 PS2 GRAND THEFT AUTO 3 5,358,994 XBX HALO 3,184,744 US only though.

3 million for Halo. 6 million for each GTA on ps2.

If you had a lot of ethers and other items you could do summons in every battle, but why bother? You don't need them in random battles. Against bosses where they'd survive a summon you can't do them over and over no matter how much MP you have. Dropped the limit thing, eh? Attack, attack, attack, attack, attack, cure, attack, attack, attack, ect. works in every FF.

Limits are broken in VIII. You can keep skipping your turn, but only if your life is in or near critical. That's still cheap though. But far more powerful is the spell Aura, which lets you stay in Limit status for a long time no matter your HP. Aura on Squall with the Lionheart weapon is way too strong.

I watched lessons. FE's speech at the end is so awesome! What ever came of the "we're going back to the beginning"..... Ranking the big bads its like impossible. I change my mind all the time, based on what I just recently saw. Warren Adam Angel First Wilkins Glory Master The Angel bads just don't compare and most are ultimatly cronies for W&H. I like Lilah and Lindsay the most though.

If that's the case and there's a difference between "activating" and "opening" then how was Buffy able to re-activate it by cutting herself in the end? If she did that it must mean the sacrifice was pointless...which brings us back to why FE didn't just have a Bringer cut it's hand? FE is stupid. If it's not inconsistency FE is just the dumbest villain ever. Either way the writers loser.

Getting 2 or 3 limits in a tough battle does not = "you can just do limits over and over to win the game~!". Besides, in a tough battle 2 or 3 limits wouldn't be that big of a deal anyway. 2 or 3 limits would not kill a hard boss. Limits are not that powerful in VII. Without heavy leveling you cannot do summons over and over. Even with tons and tons of leveling you can only do them a few times per battle. They also take a bunch of MP to do. You can't abuse them to win random battles because it will drain your MP too fast and you can't do them over and over again to bosses because you can only do them once or twice per fight. Maybe if they're talking about end game with high levels, stuff like KOTOR and Omnislash...but they're not. They just mean the average play. In fact they even go so far as to say you can run away from random battles and still use these tactics. That is nonsense. An underleveled party doing Ifrit and Cross Slash a couple times against a boss is not going to be game breakingly powerful.

I just read that article again. Awful. I can't believe that apparently passes for journalism. How is that any better than the stuff at Gamefaqs? Are childish, inane rants acceptable as long as you agree with what they're saying? I liked how they suggested you can do limit breaks and summons over and over. Really showing their in depth knowledge of FF VII's basic mechanics with that one. I wouldn't be surprised if they saw other people bashing VIII for that and just got confused and figured it applied to VII as well. It was good to see Fighting Vipers mentioned though. When rambling about a popular game and how you hate "the masses" it's always good to name drop a C list fighting game. Soooo hardcore.

KOTOR is one of the best games to come out in years and is worth $120 alone. I think the Xbox is pretty lame though.

You never know unless you try. FE was like the biggest threat ever(according to them) and it was nice enough to leave when asked nicely.

True. Joss is god. Actually, that goes for everyone involved in his tv projects. The Buffyverse is the best thing ever.

Yeah, I got all the Buffy, Angel and Firefly sets on my shelf. I'm so proud. I'm on a commentary kick right now. Been watching them the past few days. I am watching Waiting in the Wings with Joss commentary right now. RIVER!!!!!

Yeah, that was pretty lame. I liked the FE/Caleb stuff though. FE shouldn't have been any dead person the majority of the time. It should have had a scarier form for it's regular appearance. I like the demonic CGI beast it turns into(which they recycled 3 times...). The most disappointing thing about season 7 to me(besides the devestating death I am still grieving from) is that FE just goes away at the end. Soooo lame. I hate how they have Buffy and Giles hype up making it expose it's "true face" and all that and never pay it off. Buffy even promises to kill it but in the end settles for telling it to go away. The fact that yelling at it to leave actually worked is pretty sad. You know she never tried that with Glory or Adam or any other big bad. Maybe it would have worked.

Ok, you're right. Here is a statement: The First Evil is the most retarded villain in the history of television. It used Andrew because he was easy to manipulate...despite having literally an army of minions who would be happy to do it themselves. FE is dumb. It's logic is insane and happenstance, like that of a troll. I do think the balance thing makes sense though. It mentioned being done with the balance in CWDP to Will. The "evil hand" rant in Dead End is so cool. I also like the fake hand getting smashed in Ephinany. Though the greatest Lindsay hand scene of all time is when he sarcastically says he will wipe away the tears with his plastic hand when Angel is killed by Lilah. I'm really hyped to see Selfless again, even though it kind of bothers me.