I've been very busy on my supposed "week off" - I haven't touched a video game since my last blog spot, believe it or not. A Player Diary for FFIV is looking highly unlikely now, but I can affirm that the story, with its focus on light and darkness, seems to lean closer to the Christian view of things (where things simply are or are not good than the ying/yang Taoist dichotomy that ulitmately makes everything a collective abyss. It's a long play-through, and it's frustratingly difficult at times, but this makes the experience all the more fulfilling.
In Story of a Soul, St. Therese tells us that God allows suffering in order to bring us closer to Him; in the psalms, we learn that God chastises those who are close to him. Final Fantasy IV DS reflects this in both its narrative and in the actual gameplay itself - as I said, it's a long haul, but it's worth it in the end.
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4 comments:
Andy,
I had no idea you ran a videogame blog. This is great. InsideCatholic is full of nerdy gamers -- me, Steve Skojec, Laurance Alvarado, Joe Marier (sorry Joe, you're not nerdy). And Deal, Todd, and Eric play videogames with their kids.
Incidentally, if you're looking for your next game, I highly recommend Mass Effect, a beautifully written sci-fi epic. The best RPG I've ever played, and I'm not really the sci-fi type. I finished it Friday and have been down ever since.
Oops, sorry. That comment was from me.
Hey Brian,
Yeah, despite the recent surge in media coverage from Catholic outlets (decentfilms.com, and the catholic media review blog, for example), a “Catholic” website/apostolate/magazine/w/e dedicated to video games doesn’t really exist. In fact, there isn’t much on games at all in any Catholic publication, minus the occasional article repeating the ever-tired refrain of “video games are tEh violent!” Sure, there’s the monthly feature on gaming in NCR (credit where credit’s due), and, of course, the catholic game nerd, but other than that? Nada. This blog was created precisely to rectify that; I’m glad you think it’s a good idea, as well.
As for Mass Effect: if I ever it, it will be with much trepidation - the gameplay systems, at least from what I’ve seen, seem very much like those of Final Fantasy XII...a game I absolutely deplore (I'm part of the "it feels like the game is playing itself" crowd).
If I manage to finish off Lost Odyssey, Final Fantasy IV, and the upcoming Tales of Vesperia and Infinite Undiscovery, well...MAYBE I'll give Mass Effect a shot. Maybe…
Tales of Vesperia is Awsome Andy! Tim Matt and I have nearly 30 hours on it already!
(P.S. Estelle is Colletaine(a mixture of Collete and Raine))
P.S.S. I still can't figure out how to post this stuff under Martin!!!
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