Pokemon Alpha and Omega!!!!!!!!

This is a Pokemon post about two upcoming games: Pokemon Alpha Ruby and Omega Sapphire!!!!!


LOGO!!!!!

Several Pokemon fans have been begging for Game Freak to make a remake for the original Ruby and Sapphire games, so here we go!!!!!!!!!!

This game is for the 3DS and looks amazing. Better still, all THREE of the Starter Pokemon have Mega Forms (Mega Sceptile is currently my favorite)!!!!! But if they are remaking these games with Mega Form mechanics, does that mean they will do the same for Pokemon Red and Blue? Sure, both games got remakes, but it would be awesome if they made another remake for the 3DS and had The Mega Form mechanic.



Anyway, the Legendary Pokemon from the games' region (Hoenn), Groudon and Kyogre, now have special alternate forms that do not count as Mega Forms, but rather, a Whole new thing altogether: Primal Reversion!!!!! Both Pokemon double their original size, Groudon becomes a Fire Type, and glow a whitish color (But the skin color stays the same). But here is a good question the website fails to answer. How do you get Groudon and Kyogre's Primal Forms? Is it with a special item? Or does it involve a secret trick that is currently unknown to anyone at this time? We must wait and find out when the games are released in Autumn something.


Here is a gallery. Note: All images are are from the Pokemon Wiki.




Mega Sceptile!!!!!!!!!







Mega Blaziken!!!!





Mega Swampert!!!!!





PRIMAL GROUDON!!!!!!!!!!






PRIMAL KYOGRE!!!!!!



For more info please go to the website.

Time for a Journey!!!!!!!

I had to make the joke in the title. "Journey Time" would be too bland. Anyway this post is about a beautiful work of art that is the video game Journey!!!!!!! That's right. The title of the game is Journey.


LOGO!!!!

Anyway there is not a whole lot of story. Or dialogue. Pretty much all the story details come SOLELY from paintings and hieroglyphics. Hieroglyphics is lettering used by ancient civilizations (like Egypt, for example).



Anyway, In Journey you play as a mysterious creature. Your "Traveler" as we will call it for the purpose of this blog post has a cape. And a scarf. Just wanted to mention it. Anyway it is pretty obvious that your Traveler need-wants to go to a massive mountain that is constantly beckoning you to come closer. "Need-Wants" is a reference to Matau from Bionicle. Because Matau would say things like that (he also says stuff like "track-find", "sorry-bad", "happy-cheer", "quick-speed" and finally "wind-fly").


This game has pretty graphics. I just need to point it out.




Two Travelers!!!!!


Anyway, this game has a lot of walking in it. But your Traveler possesses the power of flight.



Flight!!!!!!!


But you can only stay airborne for a few seconds. Why? Because the scarf around a Traveler's neck determines how powerful flying becomes . The Longer the scarf, the longer/further/higher you wind-fly (another Matau reference)



But your Journey (title pun!) will not be a safe one. There are killer part whale, part robot, part dragon creatures I will refer to as Guardians because the paintings depict them as a last line of defense in a series of wars. These Guardians are extremely aggressive and will attack anything that enters their field of vision. Which admittedly, is actually easy to stay out of considering they have a pair of searchlights on their heads and they can only see what the searchlights light up. In other words, stay OUT of the spotlight!!!!!!



Guardians (big round spot = field of vision)!!!!!!!




What happens when you get hit? The Guardians will steal (and eat) your scarf and your scarf gives you the power of flight.



Also, there is a sand theme for the first three or so levels. The sand behaves surprisingly accurate, and walking over it leaves behind footprints. It's a small thing but it just shows that thatgamecompany (the guys that made this game) puts in small details that make the game even prettier.


Chilly-cold mountains!!!!!

BUT by the time you reach the final level (above) there is not a single bit of sand left. It is replaced with snow. And the snow behaves even more accurately than the sand!!! Your Traveler's robes will even start to freeze up and turn blue when exposed to such cold temperatures.


And something interesting happens. When your Traveler is almost to the summit of the mountain He will move slowly. As if the cold climate has suddenly zapped his energy mid climb. After a few minutes of bravely (albeit foolishly) marching through a blizzard (you can only go through it), your Traveler will black out from exhaustion. Your Traveler then has a vision of it's ancestors, and the ancestors themselves give your Traveler infinite flight, which your Traveler uses to fly almost all the way to the peak. It (the Traveler) then walks into a glowing cave and the game ends from there. BOOM.



This game has a few Easter eggs. For people that have no idea what on earth they are doing in a video game Easter Eggs are secrets hidden in several levels within a single game. The first Easter egg is probably the easiest to a find. Every time you beat the game, a row of hieroglyphics is added to your Travelers robes. But if you beat the game five or so times the robes are completely covered with hieroglyphics.



Look closely at the Traveler furthest from the center and you
will see the hieroglyphics I spoke of.



The next secret is a useful one for future Journeys (another pun!). White Robes!!! White Robes, unlike the default Red Robes recharges flight energy automatically (you have to recharge your scarf manually with the Red Robes). So You can fly whenever you want.



And finally there are several references to thatgamecompany's previous master pieces, Flower and Flow (stylized as FLOw). The first reference is that a flower from Flower (hence the title) appears in the desert. The second reference is that when your Traveler is in the temple/shrine/city-like structure the Mysterious Snake Creature from Flow is in the bottom floor.



Now because the whole story is told SOLELY with hieroglyphics, this means there are different opinions on said story. My research shows the most popular theory is that the Travelers' ancestors found a way to turn scarfs into energy but two rival cities got greedy with said energy and a war broke out. Now here is all the proof of said theory.




Hundreds of tombstones (pictured) and thousands more (off-screen)
litter the game (only a war can cause that many casualties).


And something I do not think a picture can clarify is that the the fact that when your scarf has enough energy to let you wind-fly (yet another Matau reference!) the scarf will glow a faint pale blue color but so faint that it is difficult to see in a stand still screen shot. Considering that hints that the scarf can at least store energy or at most generate said energy altogether. Two points of evidence of the "energy war" theory.


And finally here is something I would like to point out. If you are playing online (signed into PlayStation Network) there is roughly 90% of a chance you will meet another player. But you will never learn you that person is, and same way the other way around. In fact the only form of communication is a simple phrase your Traveler will speak will a push of a button. The Phrase is a simple Chirp that will always match the music (the game has the best music I ever heard in interactive entertainment! That and legend of Zelda.).


For more info please go to Journey Wiki as they will cover how to get PlayStation Trophies (awards earned for doing things inside a game. Compatible with only PlayStation Games) and have videos.

How to train your Dragon 2 Time!!!!!!

This is a post about How to Train your Dragon 2 (the movie)!!!!!!! This movie is amazing. That is my opinion. This movie is hands down the BEST sequel. EVER.

If you have no idea what is going on let's do a brief recap.

How to train your Dragon is based off the books of the same name. Now because the books have a separate story arc than the movies I am allowed to give spoilers.
Once upon a time there these Viking dudes (that's right. Vikings. Fun Fact: Vikings don't have dragons in real life!) that domesticate dragons for every chore you can possibly imagine because they are too lazy to do anything for themselves. Just kidding. They reserved their "pets" for transport and military purposes only.

Anyway, in the books the chieftain of said Vikings (his name is Stoick) has a son named Hiccup. Why did he name his son Hiccup? FUN FACT: Vikings use the word "hiccup" in the place of "failure". Because Hiccup was.... Odd to say the least. He is the only Viking that can speak dragon!!!! That's right. Dragons can talk in the books. Anyway, Hiccup was deemed useless by the other Vikings. Because he wasn't a stereotypical Viking. He was a genius. But he also wasn't physically powerful enough to be called a Viking.

Anyway Hiccup goes through dozens of adventures (going to North America, having an argument with his dragon Toothless over mannerisms, etc.) and has to save the world from a weird looking psychopath named Alvin the Treacherous and his equally crazy mother (who walks on all fours). Apparently part of "saving the world" involved going to a mystical island. And giving ten artifacts simply called the Lost Things. Remember this is in the books.
Now let's get to the movies (which in my opinion is much better).



LOGO!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anyway the first thing those who read the books will notice is the fact that 1; Hiccup looks awesome in the second movie. And 2: Toothless is now a semi-giant cat. With wings. And Flame Breath. And.....Active. To say the least. Because cats are very active for the first few years but around year six they get lazy. Toothless even acts just like my pet cat. But only when he (my cat) is on catnip.

Anyway here is the deal. Since I just watched this movie on Father's Day with my step dad I will not give a major spoiler. But I can give this spoiler. Hiccup has a Wing Suit!!!!!!! And a Light Saber. Well not a real Light Saber. More like a Saber. Covered in flames. Also Hiccup's mother (she was not in the first movie because she was living with dragons for twenty years) has an Insect Rod. Sure Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate revealed that they decided to call the Insect Rod the Insect Glaive but that sounds sissy. Insect Rod reeks of "I am a monster killing bo-staff that pro hunters use to kill things! And I come with a bee!!!" vibes. Insect Glaive sounds like a weapon only a coward would use. So I call it the Insect Rod.

Anyway, I bring that up because Hiccup's mother has a weapon identical to the very first Insect Rod you get. How do I know this? Because my computer comes with a "translate foreign language" button. Anyway here is one last spoiler I will give away. There is a WALRUS!!!!!!!!!!!! That's right. A WALRUS!!!!!!! With mind control powers!!!! And ice breath!!!! And a army of smaller but equally dangerous dragon soldiers!!!!!!!!!! And Walrus Tusks!!!!!! And armor!!!!!!!

For more info and/or major spoilers please either go to How to Train Your Dragon wiki or watch the movie yourself. NOTE: IMAGE IS FROM WIKIPEDIA.

I. Am. The. Luckiest. Monster Hunter. EVER.

This is yet another blog on Monster Hunter Tri/ 3 Ultimate. Now you will learn why I titled the post with such a weird name.



Anyway, here is the deal. First of all I have beaten the game. All I have to do now is do some bonus Quests that popped up and were labeled "urgent". And I have full Ceadeus armor, which is amazing. Not only does it look cool but it has High Grade Earplugs. Do you know how many times boss monsters roar at me? A LOT. Literally. They roar literally every three attacks (sometimes every two attacks).



Anyway, I have a tried and true strategy for both Uragaan and Ceadeus because people seem to actually have trouble with them.


Here is the Uragaan guide.

1. Rathalos Armor will help out a LOT. Doubly so if you want to cut the tail because you can easily gem in Attack Up Large.
2. Any Switch Axe will do, even though any version of the Tough Break Switch Axe is recommended. Why? Because all Switch Axes ignore Sharpness and as such will never bounce off Uragaaan's armored hide.
3. If you want to farm him for armor and weapons (and I suggest you get the armor. It makes you look like a big yellow space man) I recommend trying to cut the tail first, then go for bonus rewards (wounding chin, stunning, flash bombing etc.).
4. Bring plenty of Health and Stamina boosting items. Why? Because Though almost all of his attacks are easy to dodge his one secret weapon is that he can summon knock-out gas. Your character cannot move until he either wakes up or gets hit by something. The latter is guaranteed because he will always follow up the "sleep gas" attack with the "roll around like Sonic the Hedgehog" attack
5. Bring Cha-Cha.

Here is the method I use when I farmed Ceadeus.



 

1. Any Armor will do even though I strongly recommend the somewhat annoying to make Lagiacrus armor because it comes with Olympic Swimmer. Considering that you must break his beard/mane/fur before he enters the circular arena at the end of the underwater hallway, you need to be in front of him for pretty much the whole fight.
2. Wyvern Blade Fire is a decent weapon when fighting this guy. Scratch that. It's the best weapon against him. I used Wyvern Blade Fire on him and killed him in less than five minutes.
3. Have Cha-Cha wear the Ancient Mask. It can fully restore the Oxygen Gauge whenever it gets low.
4. When Cha-Cha shouts "Now he angry! Use the Dragonator on him before he comes back to senses!" swim to the "big friendly button" in the upper part of the arena. Wait for Ceadeus to swim after you. Push the big friendly button when he is almost upon you. Why? Because if you watch Doctor Who, you would know that every time you see a big round threatening button you must ALWAYS push it. ALWAYS push the big round threatening buttons.
5. Get Balista Ammo from the Argosy Captain. Bring at least ten. Assuming you can aim straight, the Balista(s) will deal a fairly good amount of damage.
6. Bring Max Potions. In case of emergency.

Here is a funny story for you. I was fighting Ceadeus for the very first time. I repelled him. And guess what I got in the Quest Rewards. Something that is almost impossible to get in the game. That's right. I got Elder Dragon Blood. Very First Ceadeus. Repelled. Had no idea how to fight him. Full Rathalos armor. Wyvern Blade Fire. Forgot to bring Mega Potions. And I got Elder Dragon Blood. You have 1% of a chance of actually getting Elder Dragon Blood. And around this time my favorite Switch Axe needed Elder Dragon Blood for an upgrade. BOOM. That's right. I assume those of you that spend hundreds of hours farming Alatreon or Dire Miralis to get Elder Dragon Blood would be jealous. I got it a whole minute before I decided to farm Ceadeus.

Speaking of farming. I strongly recommended using the Ceadeus Switch Axe, "Inceadeus" for later Quests because of the insanely high raw damage. Over 900!!!! So Attack up Large + Inceadeus = insanely overpowered Switch Axe.

Anyway, I noticed that one of the Bonus Quests remind me (too much) of my attempt on a double boss Arena Quest. Rathian and Rathalos vs One maybe two Monster Hunters. Co-op here is pretty much mandatory. Because Arena Mode forces you to use garbage instead of REAL Weapons. So two hunters armed with garbage will make up for lack of REAL weaponry. Sure, some people call it "Level Appropriate" gear but no matter how you look at it, you are stuck with garbage weapons and custom sets. NEVER USE CUSTOM SETS!!!!!!!!!!!!! YOU ARE A DEAD MAN WALKING IF YOU TRY TO USE CUSTOM ARMOR SETS. I know. I have personal experience with this fact.

To wrap things up here is a picture of Ceadeus armor.

 

It's so amazing!!!!

Oh and before I forget, while they normally keep the bonus campaign (High Rank) online only, in Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate you can access ANY of the High Rank missions once the story has been cleared. But Dire Miralis is the only bit of content that is completely online only. That and co-op. But who cares about teaming up with friends? It's a hunter vs monster world. Every hunter for himself!!!!!!!!!!!!! Okay you actually can team up to fight harder monsters but this is my point. You get better credit and a larger pay fee for a job well done. Playing with friends makes the game easier but sadly there is just one down fall. You only get a 1000 or so money at the end of the day. Playing solo bumps it up to 4,000,000!!!!!!!! That is assuming you were doing the Quest titled "The Brilliant Darkness". In which you must slay Alatreon who is the toughest monster. In the history of tough monsters.

 

ALATREON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Just to recap I got Elder Dragon Blood on my very first Ceadeus. BOOM.

Shadow of the Colossus!!!!!!!

There are two things I would like to point out before I talk about Shadow of the Colossus. First, this game is somewhat old and I have only recently heard of it (what I heard was nothing but praise). And second, This game was originally on the Play Station 2 but was re-released on the Play Station 3.


LOGO!!!!!!!


Anyway, this is a really good game (I have done and LOT of research on this game. I like researching video games). But there is one thing that is interesting to me. The story slightly reminds me of the tale of Sleeping Beauty (fun fact. This fairy tale, like several others, is of French origin but again like many others was retold by Disney in North America). Anyway here is a basis.


Once upon a time there was this thing (I am not sure what to call it) that supposedly had the power to revive lost souls. That being was remarkably powerful, but sadly that power made this shaman called Lord Emon seal him inside a temple in the middle of nowhere.


Several years later a young man named Wander journeys to said temple and makes a deal with this being. To revive a mysterious woman that Wander probably fell in love with at some point. This being (I forgot his name. It began with the letter "M" but that is all I remember) promised to revive this girl, but only after Wander destroys 16 idols. These idols cannot be directly destroyed so Wander must slay 16 Stone Giants linked to each idol. Destroying the "Colossi" as they are called will also destroy the idols.


This is something I would like to point out about the gameplay.  There are NO standard enemies in the game. The only thing you can fight are the Colossi, who are bosses.



But there is a twist. Each time a Colossus is slain, Wander's appearance slowly deteriorates. Because guess what? The ghost/spirit thing that made a deal with Wander has actually been possessing him. His influence grows with every victory. Boom.


Anyway, Here is something else that is cool. Once the final Colossus (which is a living castle) has been slain, the spirit (let's call him that) "borrows" Wander's body and basically goes full power. Just in time too. Lord Emon (who reveals that the sword Wander used to slay the stone giants was stolen) realizes that Wander made the biggest mistake ever. It also turns out that by destroying the stone idols and their living counterparts, Wander removed the seal keeping this spirit/ghost thing inside the temple. SO what does Emon do? He throws a magical sword into a pool of water, casting a new seal. Before the seal is complete the game is kind enough to let you play around with a mutated Wander for a few seconds. After the seal has been cast Wander's transformation begins to reverse. You are actually in control as Wander struggles against the seal's power. But it's scripted, so you have to let him get absorbed by said spell at some point.



Anyway, this game is very good. Critically acclaimed one might say. The soundtrack is downright amazing. I know because I watched more videos of this game than you can shake a broken laser cannon at. Even though the game has somewhat of a Middle Ages theme............


Anyway here is another thing to note. The only meaningful way to slay (rhyme!) the Colossi is to climb up them and and skewer them in weak spots marked by glowing symbols. While it is somewhat easy to climb up some of the Colossi, you need to solve complex puzzles, such as luring a stone turtle to a geyser and hitting it in the feet with a few arrows (Wander as a bow with arrows!), tricking a stone tiger into falling off a ledge, and grabbing hold of a humanoid giant's beard. That's right. One of the Colossi has a beard.


One last note. This game has a lot of replay value. To start things off you have Hard Mode, which let's you fight (and slay) another 16 Colossi. Then there is Time Attack, which lets you fight the Colossi under a time limit, And a New Game+ feature where your Health and Grip gauges are imported into another play-through. Did I forget to mention there is a Grip gauge? Basically it shows how long you can hold on to a Colossus before being bucked off. It increases in size after every fight. So if you do New Game+ five or so times, you can hold onto a Colossus pretty much infinitely. Oh and to encourage Time Attack mode, they will give you new items to use in future fights such as the  Harpoon of Thunder, which is a long range weapon that does pretty much the same amount of damage to a boss as you would with a skewer. BUT IT CANNOT COMPLETELY SLAY A COLOSSUS UNLESS YOU FOLLOW UP WITH A SKEWER!!!!!!!


This game is very similar to yet another game made by the same team called Ico. Game Informer claims this game has one of the best endings ever seen in interactive entertainment. Both games scored the same rating on the ESRB, who rate video games on a somewhat letter based scale based solely on how family friendly the game in question MIGHT be. Both Shadow of the Colossus and Ico are rated T for Teen. Both games sold countless copies around the world. Both games snagged insanely high scores from Ign and other critics.



Anyway one final thing to note is that there is a horse in the game (see below). Finding the Colossi is a task in itself as the only way to find them is to stand in direct sunlight, and eight beams of sunlight point in the direction of the next Colossi. To shorten this journey Wander can ride on the back of his horse, Agro (Do not ask me why the horse as a bizarre name).


Horseback!!!!!!



Fun Fact. Shadow of the Colossus originally had 24 Colossi in it but that generation of tech wasn't powerful enough to handle 24 Colossi so they had to scrap quite a few of them to get the 16 in the actual game. A few of the scrapped Colossi were prototype versions of the 16 main Colossi. This generation of tech might just be powerful enough to handle 24 Colossi, so it is somewhat of a possibility that if they made a sequel it might have 24. That is assuming they have enough time and money to make a sequel. As far as I know there is no sequel.

But Let's think back a moment. A lot of people weren't expecting Pokemon X and Y or Super Smash Bros 4 or even Skylanders, so the possibility of a sequel is possible and if there is a lot of people will be surprised. Speaking of Skylanders, sometimes I wonder what Spyro is even doing in the Skylanders universe. Ever since Giants Activision and Toys for Bob are acting like Spyro never existed. I need a classic Spyro game. I miss main series Spyro. But let's face the music (so to speak). We all miss Spyro. And we all want Nintendo to make a Star Fox game for the Wii U.


For more info please go to Team Ico Wiki or Ign. because both have videos for every boss in Shadow of the Colossus.


NOTE: I GOT MOST PICTURES FROM GOOGLE. EXCEPT THE LOGO, WHICH I GOT FROM TEAM ICO WIKI.