It's my LIFE!

Final Fantasy IV was first released in 1991 on the Super Famicom in Japan, and had been ported to the SonyPlayStation , WonderSwan Color, and Game Boy Advance and eventually, a full remake on the Nintendo DS; which is exactly what I want to review about.

The epic story of love, betrayal, and redemption is reborn better than ever in glorious 3D.

Something unique about Final Fantasy IV is that players were not given a few generic heroes and tasked to stop the evil wizard and save the world; instead, they were introduced to a wide assortment of realistic characters who struggled with complex adult issues such as love, hate, honor, duty, betrayal, and redemption.

Now, this epic saga has been entirely remade in 3D on the Nintendo DS (as compared to all other remake, which are 2D), and whether Cecil, Kain, and Rosa are new faces or old friends, this is one adventure that you shouldn’t miss.

Cecil is a man with a dilemma. Though bound by his duty as the lord captain of the Red Wings of Baron to serve his king and country, his conscience is heavy with the sins that he is committing in their name. The formerly loving and caring king who took Cecil in as a child and taught him the ways of the dark sword has become a sinister and greedy tyrant who covets the sacred crystals of the world for reasons unknown.

Upon returning from a mission to Baron’s friendly neighbor Mysidia, in which Cecil and his men were forced to steal one of the crystals like common thugs, he finally dares to question his king’s motives. For his insubordination, Cecil is stripped of his rank and sent on an errand north to the village of Mist, where his destiny is revealed to him and his journey of atonement begins.

Throughout his quest, Cecil is joined by a number of intriguing characters: Kain, his best friend and a dragoon of considerable skill; Rydia, a summoner capable of calling the legendary Eidolons to her aid, and many more. Together, they represent some of the most diverse and thoroughly fleshed-out characters in the long history of the Final Fantasy series.

Though class-specific abilities aren’t anything new, in this DS remake you now have the power to customize your characters by giving them additional abilities called augments. Augments can be found throughout the world, given to you by leaving party members, or even stolen from certain enemies, and they can do everything from passively increasing stats such as HP and MP to granting class-specific abilities like darkness or recall to normally nonqualifying characters.

A majority of the bosses require very specific strategies to defeat, and the uninformed will likely perish several times in these encounters before they grasp how to claim victory. Even if you’re a seasoned veteran who knows all of the tricks, don’t expect things to be simple; some bosses have changed just enough to throw you off of your game, and all of them are a lot tougher than you remember.

Besides the radical addition of the ability to customize your party, several other minor gameplay tweaks have been made. The characters in your party now share their thoughts with you on the menu screen, offering personal anecdotes and potentially helpful advice about the current situation.

Final Fantasy IV is easily among the best-looking 3D games on the Nintendo DS. The heavily stylized characters are impressively expressive, from the manner in which Cecil broods as he reflects on his guilt to the way that Rydia hops up and down and waves her hands to get your attention at a shop when you find something that she can equip.

Now that dungeons are rendered in three dimensions, there is a vast sense of size and depth (particularly in the final dungeon) that wasn’t previously there, and it makes your journey seem that much more awe-inspiring and epic.

Although it has been rereleased several times throughout the years, this full remake of one of the most celebrated stories in video game history is in many ways more poignant and impressive than it was all those years ago, despite minor irks with the voice acting.

With a cast of memorable characters and villains, a more accurate and authentic translation, a new skill – customization system, and a few important new story elements that help to better explain key plot points, this is the definitive version of Final Fantasy IV that everyone should experience.

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Info/images source: GameSpot, Google, Wikipedia

Tags: Game Reviews, General by Wen Bin
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YES! Finally… I can’t believe I did it! I seriously feel damn touched when I get to know about my results. The process is hell, but in order to get the outcome I desire to achieve, I must go through the hell – there is no escape.

In Chinese, we have a saying, 一份耕耘，一份收穫, meaning the more effort you put in, the better the outcome will be. This sentence has always been a pushing momentum for me in anything I do.

I step into Gryphon (BMT) as a zero fighter in pull up (basically does 0 pull up) and 13 minutes runner for 2.4km, due to the fact that I got my GOLD in NAPFA in the early 2009, and have never exercised much ever since, as I’m busy working and having competitions etc, all the way until enlistment into army

I have been training hard, been 4 months plus already, I have finally achieved my first GOLD! hahaha! Damn happy when I heard that my timing for 2.4 km has achieved gold standard xD

As for SOC, I have not been able to pass Swing trainer (Monkey Bar) ever since BMT days – imagine all the weight being added onto my body (I don’t know the exact weight, but anyhow also can count around 8kg being added on? Helmet, SBO, full 1litre water bottle, rifle…), I just can’t complete swing trainer.

But when I’m in SISPEC, I managed to train until I pass it already, but I just can’t meet the timing. We need 10 minutes 30 seconds to pass. However, my so called personal best is 11 minutes 16 seconds. I thought that I could never pass my SOC.

However, yesterday we had a final retake on SOC before we end our BSLC – I’m very thankful to all my friends whom have been supporting and encouraging me throughout the entire rundown, without them, I would not have the mentality to finish the entire SOC rundown!

Later that day, I heard that the SOC timing is out and being put up on the board already, I went over to see it… my timing was 9 minutes 36 seconds – I passed SOC! OMG! I can’t believe it~!!!! I have never thought that I could pass it! At that moment, I can feel the tears of joy filling up my eyes, the feeling is indescribable.

In life, we need a target, an aim that is worthy enough for us to work towards it; something which could make us takes every step towards it and move on.

However, this target must never be one which can be easily achieved, one has to really put in effort and time just to barely have a sight of it, yet still can’t reach it… but don’t ever give up! Continue to work hard, and you will get nearer in achieving it as long as you believe and have faith in yourself, that’s what I always do.

Tags: Army, General by Wen Bin
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Time flies, I felt like it was as though yesterday that I was enlisted to Bravo company for Basic Section Leader Course (BSLC) training, but the fact is that 4 weeks had already past and there’s only 4 more weeks to go!

I really like my section mates, they are really nice and helpful – in fact, the whole platoon is full of helpful guys! No wonder they are all in SISPEC They really take initiative and do things for everyone, not just for themselves. It’s always nice when people help each other and get things done together, it’s much more effective and time saving – well, that’s team work!

Speaking about team work, I went through the 4 days 3 nights field camp this week, it was quite a challenging week if you’d ask me; when I was sitting down on the wet and muddy ground in the rain, I asked myself,

“How did I even managed to survive through the 6 days 5 nights field camp in my BMT days at Tekong??“

I was then recalling back on what my buddy (TJR) told me back then… I remembered that I was too shack out after the 12km fast march, the digging of shell scrape right on top of concrete, huge & thick roots and ground full of stones, and got tekan like hell on a muddy ground which my whole palm actually sink into the mud when I am in push-up position; TJR and I were walking to the latrin area, and I was so shack and has no morale at all, every steps I took I feel like falling out.

My buddy, TJR gave me a punch all of a sudden and scold the hell out of me… this punch and the things he said motivated me to move on. I managed to survive through my field camp! That’s why whenever people ask me about my army life, the first thing I’ll always tell them, is that I’m super lucky to have the most amazing buddy there ever was~!!

Okay back to THIS field camp which I went through by myself, without TJR. Whenever I feel like giving up, I thought of what he said to me and the punch he gave me. Whenever I see anyone looking shack or anyone having low morale, I would encourage them, cheer them up, because I know how they feel, I know the feeling of one person sitting there, stoned and having a shack face – their morale is low and it’s still dropping! They’d want to fall out when their morale reaches zero.

Anyway, in this field camp, I learn a lot of new stuffs from 1SG Max, and many others. I felt that I have grown up once again, becoming even more confident than before that I have once again conquered another field camp and learn so much new stuffs. Thanks people!

Well, there are still so much more things for me to learn in future. Next week would be yet another hell week full of high key events, if anyone could have make it in the past (since all specialist went through them), so could I!

Last but not least, just in case some people still doesn’t know – my batch is the last batch of cadets in the School of Infantry Specialist (SISPEC), in future, the school’s name will be changed to Specialist Cadets School (SCS).

Cheerios!

Tags: Army, General by Wen Bin
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First of all, I’d like to wish everyone a very happy new year 2010! Hope that all of you would have a great year ahead!

Well, have you guys thought of any new year resolution? Something new and different that you want to achieve in this coming year?

I have my own resolutions in mind already. This is the first time ever that I made myself think of a new year resolution, because I find that goals may be goals, but if you don’t set it high yet practical and make yourself work towards it, you will never get there.

And to make it a resolution for 2010, means that I would have to reach my goal within that year! Another thing that I learnt in army – giving timing makes people work more efficiently.

One thing for sure about me that I definitely know it myself, is that I’m a changed person starting from year 2010; maybe army changed me. I don’t know for those who don’t know me well, but for those whom have known me enough, in time, they would see that I’m a changed person.

If you’d ask me, I’d say that I find myself more mature, more able to face unexpected difficulties, more capable in handling stress, and is definitely more able to look at things with an open heart.

I find that I’m looking at things at a higher level now – well at least when I compare the “level” that I am now at and where I was few months ago, I’m indeed standing higher now, and my eyes is still looking up…

One last thing – hope my injuries would recover soon! (Left ankle sprained, right foot swollen)

Till I blog again, cheerios!

Tags: General by Wen Bin
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