Alright. This is going to be the last blog entry I’m writing in the US and before I fly back to Singapore. As depressing as it is, I’m gonna try make it sound lighter… for my own sake. So I’m gonna just write it in rant form… whatever I did or whatever happened over the past 2 weeks.

First, there’s been a lot of shit concerning my computer, which is a HP slimline PC. Long story short, firewire port’s broken, need to replace motherboard, but I don’t wanna send my PC back to HP cos it’ll take time, so I asked for an in-home technician, technician came 2 days later, disassembled the computer but found that the CPU had bent pins, he couldn’t put the parts back together, HP told him I could only send the PC back to them to repair. In the end I still HAD to send my PC back to them, and HP would not NOT erase the memory and shit, so I lost all my memory altho’ most of them are fortunately backed up on my external hard drive, and now I’m waiting for it to come back. It’s back already but the FedEx guys always miss me cos’ I’m sleeping whatsoever and yeah. Fuck. But at least, I didn’t spend as much on the repairs as I thought I would. I thought I spent $180 for nothing, but in the end I got refunded for the $99 for the in-home technician and I didn’t spend an extra $40 cos’ the local technician couldn’t help me back up my hard drive from the computer. So in the end I only spent $40 for the diagnosis. Phewz.

Next, the good stuff. While the computer problem was an ass, I still had fun and was fortunate to have been able to hang out with Beth (aka Veira from the forum) for a number of times while she was here in Eugene. We mostly either talked or went on a Resident Evil 4 marathon. =P It was fun, tons of RE nerdiness and fangirliness. Wahahaha~~! Man, I miss her already… T__T And we also hung out with Jonathan (aka Zipp) and played RE4 on the wii a couple times… We finally finished the main game the last time we hung out together… although we didn’t have too much time left to play enough ‘Mercenaries’. Still, it was fun. *Grins in glee* But now I’m back to depression, thinking I might never be able to see them again… SIIIIGGGHHH….

Then, I also hung out with some of my co-workers from CASLS. Visited one of their houses, and it was pretty. We mostly just sat and talked, and looked around the house. We also took some pictures and I like them so here they are =P

Fourth… er… well I suppose this could have been the first thing I mentioned. The move. I had to throw a lot of stuff away but they weren’t very important whatsoever so yeah, I finally moved out of that apartment that our family’s been staying at for like what, 13 years? =P Gotta thank my sister (and bro in law) for helping me with the move and all, especially with the fact that she’s pregnant. O_o;; Super woman. Arigatou yo, neesan. ^_^ *Hug* But then cos’ I’m way too lazy to clean the apartment myself, we decided to hire a cleaner to clean it for us. There’s just no way I can clean that hopeless apartment… cos’ it’s just not in my blood to clean =P So all that cost me $100… but it’s worth it. I’d rather pay that hundred bucks than spend more than a day trying to clean and failing badly at it anyway. Oh, I also managed to sell a good number of my manga on eBay. I think I got about $500 total from the sale.  Sounds like a lot, but trust me, the manga I sold definitely cost me over $1300. But whatever man, I just need to get rid of them and make some money back along the way.

And ah… Vergil. Vergil my gerbil. LOL. I gave him to a friend… who’s gonna leave him with his other friend who’d take care of him. It’s weird that I’ll never see him (the gerbil) again but I suppose he’s better off with my friend and his friend since I tend to neglect him a lot… >_>;; And Pun, if you’re reading this, thanks a lot for taking care of him. And I still owe you dinner for that and the move. ^^;

And now, wahahahahaha, you know this is coming. Back to games XP It’s not that I actually really want to talk about it now but since I finally remembered 2 more things to add to the list of “most overrated things” I might as well write about it now.

First, it’d have to be Heavenly Sword, a hack and slasher GoW rip-off—I mean GoW alike… made exclusively for the PS3 (like anyone gives a shit really…) I first heard it from… prolly one or more of the members in my forum many many months ago, raving about how awesome the game’s gonna be. There weren’t many trailers of it back then so from what I saw, all I thought was “Er… it’s ok.” Then about a week ago or so, I played the demo at a friend’s place, a very short demo. It throws you right into battle, which is perfect for a demo. But perhaps cos’ I didn’t really try to understand how the game’s played whatsoever, all I felt of that game was that it was a flashy hack and slasher. Pretty good graphics (not as awesome as I thought it’d be though) and tons and tons of hack and slashing.

As this awesome review said, all you do is pretty much mash random buttons with your fingers or head and the girl will do crazy shit for you, regardless if you know what you’re doing. Anything else that’s not hack and slash is pretty much taken right off God of War, like the button sequence pressing whatsoever it’s called. Not that it’s wrong to do it, since it’s impossible to come up anything that’s 100% original anymore, but still, you can pretty much describe the game as GoW with a female Kratos. The demo was super short, and the hacking was meh to boring if you ask me. So yeah, I don’t see what all the hype is about with this game. The girls are not hot either. Maybe some fanboys just like the idea of a woman wearing considerably little twirling all over the place and slashing enemies to bits? You tell me.

Second, Dynasty Warriors. I remember now that this is the thing that made me decide to write about the “some of the most overrated things” blog entry. I was at a friend’s place and they went “Oh, let’s play Dynasty Warriors!” And after they boot the game up I saw that they’ve practically maxed out all but one of the er… 30-ish playable characters. I’ve played hack and slashers before (yeah, it’s another hacky slashy) and I know how much time it takes to max out even just one character. So for my friends to have maxed out all but one, that’s some crazy… time investment. But really, what’s so awesome about Dynasty Warriors (and Samurai Warriors and all other Koei hack and slashers for that matter)? It’s practically a mindless button mashing kill-everything-that-moves game. Most hack and slashers are like that anyway but what’s most impressive about the Dynasty Warriors series is that they’ve got like half a dozen games. =_= I dunno what’s different between each one but hell, every time I see the screenshots or watch a friend play, I find that they’re all practically the same to me. If you ask me, hack and slashers are some of the most boring action games ever made, especially when they try to take themselves so seriously in terms of gameplay and storyline, which is why the only hack and slasher I’d play is Sengoku Basara but that’s out of the point so let’s go back to Dynasty Warriors.

For all of you who don’t know, Dynasty Warriors is based off Chinese war history, including historical figures like Chao Chao, Zhu Ge Liang, Liu Bei and etc. Regardless if you tweak the story/history to make it fit a game, there’s just no way you can make them fight the same war six times over (once for each game) for the same or different reason depending on what the creators decide to tweak in the story. Seriously, which warrior won’t go “You again!? Didn’t I kill you the last time!?” if they see each other again and again in every war despite swearing that they’ve killed each other. Lame.

Anyway, you get the point, or not. But yeah, I guess that’s about it for now. Got nothing more to add… and I don’t wish to think about things too much or depression will come back to me again. So I’ll get off here. I dunno when I’ll update this blog again, but in case I don’t come back for a long time, lemme say “See ya and goodbye” to all those impressive people who actually read my lame blog and entries. Take care and kick ass.

I wanted to include this in yesterday's entry as well but since I was too sleepy by the time I got to this I decided to just leave it till the next entry. This is yet again about my unimportant ramblings but well, I've got a new topic =) Whether you like it or not, enjoy. =P

++ Some of the most overrated things ever ++ (in no order)

The Nintendo WII

Yeah, you're not seeing this wrong. The WII is overrated. Mind you, I've played it a couple of times at a friend's place and yes it was fun, but is it barely half as fun as most regular PS2 or Xbox games for that matter. Why? Because at its core, it's a system made best for multiplayers (so that you can enjoy with your friends and family) and because it's a system made to attract non-gamers of all ages, hence the number of MINIGAMES that are made for the WII instead of a real game that real gamers could enjoy.

It's a revolution all right, since it's actually managed to convert non and even anti gamers into casual MINI gamers, but if you really think about it, most of all the fuss about it comes from the fact that it's a sleek little gimmick. Who wouldn't go WOW at seeing a system that works like a wireless remote control? I was pretty intrigued, but it was barely enough for me to even start thinking about getting it.

Sephiroth (Final Fantasy VII)

I can't emphasize more on how overrated this pretty boy is. I don't care how many Sephiroth fans are out to kill me after reading this. Now let me summarize Sephiroth for you in a few words - he's a man-gone-insane with pretty silver hair and a longass 3-meter sword. People say "BUT HE'S BADASS!" Many characters can be badass in many different ways, but Sephiroth? All he does is to look cool in his outfit and swing his sword around from time to time killing enemies in one hit. No offense, Sephiroth fans, that's just lame. Also, did you forget that he got PWNT big time by an emo Cloud? That so-called badass got pwnt a LONG TIME AGO in one of the most humiliating ways as a 'badass' villain. For that, he's already got MINUS 700 cool points from me.

Fanboys think he's awesome cos' he kicks ass with his sword and cos' his BGM is oh-my-fawk-so-awesome, yeah (I agree his BGM is badass). Fangirls think he's awesome simply cos' he's got pretty boy silver hair and because he's the #1 nominated yaoi pair for Cloud. But does he have substance? NO. I thought he did, but he is as plain as "an insane powerful villain". Any villain who's made insane is simply a villain given a convenient setup as to why he can hate all of humankind and destroy the world for no reason. Of course, he has a reason for becoming insane, but I didn't buy it. Sorry but it just wasn't convincing.

Final Fantasy XII

Oops, what an irony. I remember playing this game for 93 hours in 2 weeks back in February 2006. Good old times, but alas, now that the delusion has cleared, I've come back to realize how wrong I was. The game has pretty graphics, both in-game and pre-rendered, but in the end it really wasn't all that engaging or interesting a game. First off, the game was unbelievably long with god-remembers-how-many-dungeons and maps without all that much of a real/good reason or explanation as to why you're where you are. The battle system was fun for a start since it was totallly attractive for someone as lazy as me who'd hate to manually press the attack button in an RPG, but after the first dungeon, you've practically tasted all the game has to offer in terms of gameplay. Eventually all that you'll ever do is to walk your characters around using your left thumb and the analog stick and simply watch them automatically kill knights, animals and dinosaurs for you over and over. Did I also mention that all six of your characters can practically do the same things in battle? So seriously, why do you even need SIX people in your team?

The story? Yeah, the story. It's like the most disappointing thing FF12 can ever bring you. Not having a true main character isn't a problem, but not further exploring each of these different characters and engaging them with the story together as a whole is really just crap. To summarize FF12's story, it's about a princess who lost her country to some baddies and she's now trying to recover it. Ending? She simply succeeded, with the help of six other tag-alongs. Wow I'm so impressed.....???? What about Balthier? What about Vaan? Fran? What's their story? "Oh Fran is a Viera who left the wood to contribute to the world that's in need of help" Yeah? So what triggered her to do it? When and how did she leave? What happened after that? How did she meet Balthier? How long have they been together? Nought. THANKS, FF12.

God of War

This just must be on the list. Now what's so bad about this game? Nothing, not really. So why is it on the list? Cos' regardless of it not being a bad game, it's STILL overrated! I'll give you this straight up - Graphics? Awesome. Music? Great. Story? All right. Gameplay? All right. Overall? I say it's pretty good, especially for GoW2 for the way improved boss battles. So what's so overrated about it? It's the fact that OMGZ so many fanboys go "It's like da best game eva!!11 So awes0me!! Super excellent gameplay similar to Devil May Cry!" Devil May CRY?? I'll make YOU CRY for even comparing those two games. I know what you're thinking. You're thinking I'm biased cos' I originate from the DMC fandom. But no, I'm not being biased. Let me break it down to you why.

Unlike DMC, GoW is 50% action AND puzzles. All you do is solve one puzzle to another and kill enemies along the way. Every different enemy has a different finishing move which always heavy violence, making all the fanboys go "FAWK YEAH this is so KEWLZ!!" While the finishing moves are fun, the general gameplay is practically hack and slash. There's a huge array of moves that you can use when you max out your character/weapons but the battle system's not made for DMC-style combos. Most of the time, you can practically massacre enemies just by mashing on one button or repeating the same move you find effective over and over. While it's fun, it's not really THAT fun, at least not enough to deserve the overrating it's received since GoW1. The biggest reason why it's so blindly popular is more likely becos fanboys love their angry violence and naked women with boobies and revealing titties.

Pirates of the Carribean: At World's End

Come on, I KNOW I'm NOT the only one who thinks this movie sucks ass. The first PotC movie was brilliant. It was my favorite for a looong time simply because it was so simple, fun and enjoyable. And then the 2nd movie came out, which still wasn't all too bad although it plunged some to some degree in impression already. Then finally the 3rd movie came out and we all hoped that it'll redeem itself somehow, only to find out that it's utter crap.

Why is it crap? One, the movie's TOO LONG and TOO SLOW and too BORING for no good reason. More than half of the movie was all convoluted talk about convoluted things that stopped to matter to most people who were already confused since the 2nd movie. Almost nothing made sense, and practically nothing was funny. The character Jack Sparrow was so disappointing this time, as if he's totally dried out of humor. Will and Elizabeth continued with their lover's fight as all of a sudden Elizabeth got like x20 screentime and lines, and turning into a huge pirate figure and commanding the others on what to do. Oh seriously, what the FAWK?! I am so glad I didn't watch this in the theatre. Look, I had to even force myself to watch the remaining half of the movie online cos' I stopped halfway the first time.

Hitsugaya Toushirou (Bleach)

Yeah, Hitsugaya's definitely on the list. Maybe 2 years ago I found him cool, but after all that time, I realize he's really nothing but a grumpy-faced kid the other characters call a 'genius'. Why is he a genius? Becos' he rose to the rank of captain despite being a... how old is he again? So okay, what else is so genius about him? Well, he's already capable of releasing Bankai which is the ultimate form of the swords these characters use considering his age. But think again, is he really all that strong? What has he done so far that really made you go wow?

Hmm, he was once enraged with Gin and was going to kill him only to get owned. Later he was again enraged with Aizen and was gonna kill him too only to get owned again! Much later when he battled against a small-fry Arrancar, he got badly owned until he was finally given the permission to release 'full strength' in the mortal world where they're fighting. So how's things looking so far? He's more like a pwnt-kid rather than a kickass-kid! So what other awesome things are there about him ever? Yeah, like the fact he's got pretty silver hair and a somewhat cocky attitude? Dude, that's far from enough to save the face and name he's lost since long. He doesn't have too much screentime but when he does, he hardly ever does anything that shows any real interesting character or trait about him, except for the fact that he can be quite the pushover despite the grumpy attitude. So yeah, is he really that awesome??

Bleach

Well, I certainly didn't think it'll come down to this. I liked Bleach for a long time... but now I've also not really liked Bleach for a long time. The series started out all right, and then it got better, and then it rose to its peak before it plunged all the way down since the beginning of the 2nd arc. Basically, the first arc is about the main character trying to save a girl and he fights rounds after rounds of battles with a dozen enemies, 'leveling up' each time. Then, the 2nd arc is about the main character trying to save another girl and basically he fights rounds after rounds of battles with a dozen enemies... Hmm, where have I heard that story before?

The worst thing about this is that for each and every one of those dozen battles, they say the same one-liner over and over and over like it's a prayer. "I'm gonna beat you!", "Eat my strongest attack!", "You can't beat me!", "I can't lose!", "I came here to save my friend!", "I'm the strongest!", etc etc etc lalalala. And no matter how impossible-to-beat the battle looks, in the end the main character always wins, even if it doesn't make any sense as to how he could have won considering all the conditions he was in. So imagine this. Baddie unleashes his most powerful attack on goodie main character who's been beaten up to his worst shape ever. Then all of a sudden goodie decides he can't die yet and BAM! He blocks baddie's attack and does a super-duper-ultimate attack in return. It horribly reminds me of lame leveling-ups when playing RPGs, only, this isn't even an RPG. It's a friggin' anime/manga.

The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi

OK, since I'm running out of motivation to write about this, let me just simply summarize this anime. It's a comedy anime that's NOT funny, all its 'funny bits' being either fan service to the boys or non-humorous nonsense. The main character herself is ultimately annoying and unbearable and Mikuru is 900% pure fan-service with THE most annoying high-pitch-and-passive female anime voice. The only saving grace? Kyon (and the opening theme). Why? Cos' his sarcastic inner thoughts are actually funny, but not enough to cover up for all the lameness of the anime. Bottomline? It's the ulimate waste of time. Why did they even bother making such an anime?

Once again I'm back with old and new obssessions! Whee~~! I've told everyone who'd ever be interested about this so this is really written just for my own record only, so that I can one day look back and go "OMG I was so crazy about -insert-character-name- back then!" =P

++ Current Obssessions ++

	#1 obsession: Raiden (Metal Gear Solid 4) This guy's been on my mind every day since the new trailer for MGS4 was shown at E3 2007. Kojima obviously did his best to try please both the male and female fans in that trailer and as a fangirl, I was more than pleased. I am obssessed =P One sad little thing is the fact that Raiden's current look is slightly modified and it's not exact the version that I'm craving for, hence the reason why I'm trying fill in that void one way or another... by posting this Raiden pic as shown on the left everywhere I can stare at - desktop wallpaper, MSN avatar & cellphone wallpaper. I've also grown 100% OK with Old Snake x Raiden by now =P
	#2 obsession: Dan Smith (Killer 7) Dan was the 2nd character who caught my eye the very first day I randomly surfed the official Killer7 website out of curiosity. (The 1st being Kevin) I didn't know much about him back then and I still don't know very much about him now since Killer7's story is so convoluted but it really doesn't take much to like this guy. All you need is to hear his voice and watch his body gestures and you'll fall in love at first sight XP He is both badass and sexy in his own way; all of it quadupled when paired with South American thief Coyote Smith. *_*
	#3 obsession: Albert Wesker (Resident Evil) Thanks to Veira showing me a photo she took of a giant Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles poster with Wesker in it, my dormant obssession over this mysterious man awakened again! Wesker is back, and he's hawter than ever!! @_@ It's so rare to ever see him without his shades, and to see him without his shades *IN CGI*?? OMFG!! *Explodes* Now, the best thing is, the trailer for RE5 has also been released recently and the main character Chris Redfield, who has a long-time 'bad' relationship with Weskey, has now grown into a *MAN*. This is just the purrrrfectest timing eva.... .*DROOLZ* I think you should know the rest. =P

And so I'm finally back... to talk about happier things. I just decided what games I'll get for the PS3 when I do and so yep, here they are. =) And I'll most likely buy the PS3 when either DMC4 or MGS4 is released.

Well…. DUH? >_> This is one series you should know I’ll get no matter what. It’s the very core of my online life and community, what can I do without it? O_o We haven’t really seen TOO much of the game yet but considering E3’s going on as we speak we might just get a little more new information soon. I’ll summarize what we know the game has in it for us so far.

• Play Nero as main character. He’s one-handed (left) and only uses one gun (a beautiful magnum) as opposed to two (Dante) so he shall bring us some form of new/tweaked battle system that’s not entirely like what we’re used to with Dante.
• There’ll be some interesting forms of ‘travel’ in the game and few puzzles. Yeah, that’s awesome. Cos I HATE puzzles, and DMC don’t need no puzzles!
• We are likely to get a chance to fight Dante as an ‘enemy.’ How much cooler can it get?? =P And from that we shall uncover the truth story/reason as to why things play out that way. OoOoOohh… We all pray it won’t turn out to be Devil May Solid.
• Dante is playable. Who the hell even thought he might not be playable must be an idiot.
• A big fiery boss who’s seemingly slow and plainly large in size as your most-likely first boss. And Nero’s gonna kick the shit out of him.

This is one of the only few games that are actually (for now) still exclusive to the PS3. I wasn’t originally a Metal Gear Solid fan but thanks to silly Raiden in the parody made for MGS3 I gave it a try and ended up liking it pretty well. You gotta admit man, the graphics for MGS4 are insanely beautiful. You may argue that like practically all the other PS3 games are the same, but it doesn’t change the fact that it’s pretty. =)

It’s a shame that Kojima seemingly stated that Solid Snake will be the only character who’s playable, which means there’s no hopeful chance that we might be able to play as the badass now-ninja Raiden. And yes, Raiden is like 85% of the reason why I’ll get this game and love it regardless of how bad/good it may be. Remember man, that’s how fangirls ROLL. We spend our money for our boys, not necessarily for the game. =P On a side note, the new MGS4 trailer (Raiden's part) shown at E3 3007 is like..... *FANGASMS*

Thanks to Maro/Andres/Durian I have been enlightened to this game I never knew/heard of until 2 weeks ago. At first glance it is very Resident Evil 4-ish but we can’t say that for sure until we play the finished game ourselves now can we? First things first, the main character’s hot. =P (Namely the center pic with the yellow background) Like I said before above, girl gamers are controlled mainly by the boys you give them, and with someone like that?? (Hayden, the main character of this game) Oh HELL YES. =P

Unfortunately you don’t really get to see much of him from the trailer’s they’ve released so far, yet. And in those game trailers you see him walking slowly 70% of the time. The other 30% being either him throwing his badass glaive and killing enemies in one hit or whacking people’s heads off in yet again one hit. Pretty lame for a trailer, but regardless the concepts are considerably nice. To put it simply, Hayden wakes up to find himself mutating for some god-knows-what reason and he now faces tons of mutants who’re trying to kill him thinking he’s human and humans who’re trying to kill him thinking he’s mutant. In other words, kill everything that moves. =)

Assassin’s Creed
Type: Action / ???
Publisher: Ubisoft
Coming out: End of 2007

Though I know it’s different, let’s just say that I’m getting this as if it’s the PS3 edition/sequel/version of Prince of Persia. Playing as an assassin is inarguably badass and a badass whose face we’ve not seen/don’t know is even more badass. Though I don’t know how exactly the game is gonna be played in terms of the battle system, I predict that it’s gonna be somewhat like Prince of Persia. If not, anything works anyway.

It’s the trailer that made most people go “Wow, coooool!” and naturally I’m one of them. =P I foresee some ninja-sneaking and snooping but whatever it is, it should prove to be cool. Come on, it’s Ubisoft. Who doesn’t have faith in them? =)

Now this is one of those series that majority of gamers get no matter what happens ANYWAY. It’s the series that’ll never fail to sell millions of copies even if it sucks just because it’s got the words FINAL FANTASY. Fanboys will buy it cause they get seriously hardcore about their favorite series/genre of games and totally can’t wait to see how ‘different’ and awesome the latest installment will be. Fangirls will buy it cause they are satisfyingly fed with pretty boys and hot men, especially when the character designer is yet again none other than Nomura Tetsuya. It’s true we haven’t seen more than one guy for FFXIII but we know there’ll be more. *Evil grin*

Conclusion? I’m both a fangirl and fanboy in that aspect. Obviously, my priority lies in the hot boys but considering it’s a Final Fantasy RPG,the gameplay should at the very least be ‘satisfying’ and I’m totally up for it. I’m not big on RPGs so when I DO play RPGs it’s mostly because I’ve stuck to that series for a while. Final Fantasy is one of those ‘lucky’ series that ever get my attention. I heard that FXIII will have a total of 3 different games and I can’t say that I’ll definitely get them all, but whichever of them has a main GUY character, I’ll get it no questions asked. =P

Okay, this certainly has been a LONG time. I didn’t have much to say before and I was way lazy so I just kinda stopped. >_>;; Well, perhaps about a week after my last entry I started watching LOST cos’ I needed something to replace FF8 while it’s gone. LOST took about 2 weeks to finish since it’s got 69 episodes (x 43 min each), but well I did finish it soon enough. >_o;; And now I’m back to nothing… so I decided that I must do something… and of all things I decided to resume my 2nd FF8 play through. XD I seriously needed my Zell fix. ^__^!!

So I’m back playing FF8 but I finished it just 3 days ago or so. This time it took me about 48 hours as compared to 43 hours my first time. I think it’s becos I went ahead and drew even more magic this time, and I actually spent 1.5 hours doing the most repetitive shit trying to mug 100 lightweights from a certain enemy to refine into 1 Accelerator which I can use for a GF to learn auto-haste. O_o… I’m OCD in this case. =P

So what did I do all that for? Well, I wanted to kick Omega weapon’s ass mega-badly again. =P I’ve had my share of victory 3 years ago when I played first FF8 but this time I’m gonna triple that pwnage. XD I even got 100x3 Full Lifes and Ultimas. I’m SOOO HELLA prepared this time. XD

My main team includes Squall (LV 94), Zell (LV 97) and Rinoa (LV 83). But against Omega, I make it a point to myself never to use Squall, cos’ he makes it TOO easy it actually hurts my gamer’s pride. LOL. There’s absolutely nothing to be proud of beating Omega with Squall, unless you don’t have his final limit break Lion Heart. Then, it’ll make a fair enough challenge. So anyway, since I’m not gonna use Squall, naturally I stick in the other hottie who’s not in my main team to replace him – Irvine (LV 20).

So, Alpha Team = Zell, Irvine, and Rinoa. This is pretty much my favorite team against Omega cos’ they’re all fun characters, and seeing how much damage a LV 20 Irvine does is more than satisfying. ^_^ I managed to beat Omega with them (but of course =P) and posted below is the recorded footage, complete with personal comments added for humor. =D Those who play FF8 should take a look at it. =) I enjoyed it very much myself.

And that’s Alpha Team. Though it’s slow (cos’ of Zell’s long-ass limit break), it’s definitely steady and reliable, especially if Rinoa casts Invincible Moon. (More like her dog casts it) So who says we need Squall to kick Omega’s ass?? =D Now let’s us hop on to Beta Team.

Beta Team consists of the 3 characters not in my main team, which means they are Irvine (again, LV 20), Quistis (LV 19) and Selphie (LV 15). And no, you’re not looking at the wrong numbers. We are challenging Omega with a LV 18 team. Mwahahaha!!

Now, for those of you who know FF8, you must be thinking, “The lower your team’s level, the lower Omega’s level, which means you’re just fighting an easier Omega.” But hold that thought and watch the footage below first ya? Just to tell you though, I may have beaten Omega with this team but it doesn’t change the fact that my only attacker is Irvine so the footage goes over 10 minutes and has to be broken into 2 parts. But trust me, this video is, in my humble opinion, more interesting than Team Alpha. I mean dude, how often do you see someone fighting Omega with a LV 18 team? =)

(Sorry but I permanently lost the 2 youtube vids I posted here)

If you managed to watch and finish both parts to Team Beta’s footage, you’re awesome and I thank you for that =D *Bows* So SEE?? WHO ever NEEDS Squall??!?!?! Irvine alone is enough to take out Omega!! (In fact I’ll go ahead and try that later!! LOL) With Quistis and Selphie it just speeds things up a little, that’s all. And now that you’ve seen the Team Beta vid, do you recall Omega inflicting less damage on my characters or that he has lower HP than usual?

He damages 4400 for every single Terra Break hit (~2000 when I have Mighty Guard) and he still does Medigo Flame inflicting 9998 on everyone. His light pillar still does 9999 damage and he still has 1, 100, 000 HP. How do I know? Irvine used 73 pulse ammos and 51 AP ammos.

Calculation:
9999 x 73 (pulse) = 730, 000 (pulse damage)
8000 x 51 (AP) = 408, 000 (AP damage)
730, 000 + 408, 000 = 1, 138, 000 (total damage)
1, 138, 000 > 1, 100, 000

Conclusion? Omega still has 1.1+ million HP. And that means the challenge remains the same as a LV 100 Omega. =)

Now since I’m currently so crazy about this, I’ll break it down to you what these different characters need to own Omega, ever.

Squall (minimum LV 70)
- Lion Heart (cast Aura on self first)
- Revive (entirely optional, but useful for ‘just in case’s)
Why LV 70?
Squall’s attack power depends on his STR which is ideally 255 MAX. To get his STR up that high, he’ll need either STR +40% & STR +60% (waste of 1 ability slot) or he’ll need to use STR Bonus to increase his STR as he levels up so that SRT +40% (or 60%) is enough. The cheap thing about Squall is that his limit break enables you to do critical attacks each time just by pressing the trigger at the right time as shown by his Renzokuken indicator, so even if his attacks typically damage ~5000, his limit break attacks will leap up to 8000-9000, so you don’t need to have STR 255 to get 9000+ damage. Plus, Lion Heart guarantees 9999 damage per hit no matter what (or so it seems).  All it takes is about 3-4 Lion Hearts and Omega will be down. Cheap. Too cheap.

Zell (minimum LV 80)
- Duel (does not need Aura)
- Recover (optional, but helpful in case of emergencies)
Why LV 80?
Zell is almost the same as Squall, only, he seldom gets critical hits. So if you put Squall and Zell together BOTH at STR 255, Squall will inevitably damage more becos he’s cheap that way (his gunblade trigger and limit break critical hits). So, for Zell to stay on the same ‘league’ as Squall, he unfortunately has to have higher stats than Squall. If Zell’s punches typically damage 5000+, his Duel punches will damage Omega (after casting Meltdown) slightly less than 5000 becos' that's the way it works. He occasionally (30% of the time) gets critical hits and damages 8000-9999 but it’s not constant. The good thing is that Zell’s limit break is highly abuse-able. For every given second for Duel, you can get in 4-5 hits just by alternating between Punch Rush (--> + <--) and Booya (O + X). Without Aura or super low critical health, Zell is typically given 4.5 seconds for his limit break, and in that time you can get in ~20 hits. 20 x an average of 6000 damage = 120 000. But when given 11+ seconds, I can get in as many as 47 hits, resulting in 282 000 damage, which is right about the same or more damage than Lion Heart. 8D SEE?!?! Also, he's the's the only one who's guaranteed to be able to beat Omega in a SOLO battle before Omega gets to do Light Pillar. Even Squall can't guarantee that. 8D

Irvine (minimum LV 15)
- Hyper Shot / Armor Shot (if LV is low)
- Scatter Shot (if STR is ultra-high)
- Revive (entirely optional)
Why LV 15?
I’ll make it simple – Irvine is the KING of FF8. Why? Not even Squall the cheap-ass can do 9999 damage at LV 20!!!! This guy does NOT rely on his STR for extreme damage. All he needs is his final weapon (Exeter) and the right type of ammos, namely Pulse (or AP) ammos. It’ll be annoying trying to get his Pulse ammos but it’s worth it and it’s right along the way while trying to get Squall’s Lion Heart anyway. At LV 20 with Exeter, Pulse Ammo and STR ~150, Irvine is capable of inflicting 7000-9999 damage on Omega WITHOUT casting Meltdown. With Meltdown, all his pulse ammo shots are guaranteed 9999. If you finish all his pulse ammos, just move on to AP ammos. They’re only slightly weaker, averaging 7500-9000+ damage. So Squall may be cheap, but WHO’s the REAL king HUH??? =D Unfortunately, I have failed to succeed in a Irvine solo vs Omega battle. T__T

Rinoa (minimum LV 15)
- Invincible Moon (cast Aura first for assurance)
- Meltdown (cast on Omega first)
- Aura (cast on self/others)
- Defend (if Invincible Moons fails)
- (Mega)Phoenix Down (revives others)
Why LV 15?
The girls are in charge of healing and support. Rinoa is simply the deluxe version of the three thanks to her Invincible Moon. All she needs is a max HP of 9999 (use HP +80% and junction Full-Life) and make sure that her dog has mastered Invincible Moon, and she can be at ANY LV. She will be in charge of keeping the team alive, especially herself and supporting them with Aura and attempting for Invincible Moon. If she can’t get Invincible Moon and Terra Break is coming up, all she needs is Defend. Then she’ll revive everyone else ASAP. If you plan for Rinoa to be an attacker rather than defender, she’ll definitely need to level up more till she gets higher STR.

Quistis (minimum LV 15)
- Mighty Guard (it’s handy)
- Recover (used to support main defender)
- Aura (cast on self/others)
- Meltdown (cast on Omega first)
Why LV 15?
Unless you want her to be an attacker, there’s no need for her to high in level/STR. Like Rinoa, all she needs is a max HP of 9999 (use HP +80% and junction Full-Life) and make sure that she at least has Mighty Guard or she’ll be totally useless. Other than casting Mighty Guard, Quistis only needs to make sure that the main attacker is alive, and that the main defender has full 9999 HP by using Recover. When she has turns and isn’t doing anything, she can just cast Aura on those who don’t have it yet. Yup, that’s all.

Selphie (minimum LV 15)
- Defend (main duty)
- Meltdown (optional, cast on Omega first)
- Aura (cast on others)
- Curaga (cure self if support defender is dead)
Why LV 15?
Likewise, all she needs is a max HP of 9999. She does NOT need to use a single limit break except for Full Cure if you must. Selphie acts as my main defender in my Team Beta. She’s the one who remains alive and revives the rest throughout the battle. She just needs to make sure that her health is 9999 at all times and when she has turns to spare, she can just cast Aura on the others (don’t bother with herself). When Terra Break’s coming, she MUST go into Defend, and once it’s done, she’ll have to revive the other two, rinse and repeat. Selphie will never get to hurt Omega; she’s just a defender but without her, Team Beta would die in 4 minutes.

So anyway, that’s it for now =P Tons of detail on my FF8 Omega Pwnage strat yeah? XD Right now I’m hopping on to my next attempt on Irvine (solo) vs Omega. Mwahahahhaa!!! Wish me luck? =P