Final Fantasy Tactics

Begin review: I think that this game is really awesome. It doesn't matter if you seem to be inept at video games. It's like the chess of Final Fantasy games. You can have up to 9 people in your party at any one time. Every character has the ability to be a Priest, (White Mage), Wizard, (Black Mage), Thief, Squire, Knight, Archer, Chemist, (uses items), Geomancer, Mime, Monk, Time Mage, Summoner, I mean, the list goes on and on. I think that there's 19 or 20 of 'em. You don't run around a town, geting into random battles. No sir, that's not original enough. You go town to town, advancing the story, and battling certain key battles, like all the other FF games, but it's the battle system that makes this game unique. Your people, and your enemies, go one turn at a time, and the battlefield is set up in a grid. You move your characters around, formulating a strategy based on how many people there are, whether they have Archers that can get you from 8 spaces back, or Wizards to attack from the shadows, and the surrounding area, as you can go up on top of a house from the back, and attack from just out of reach... Your Knights, Squires, Monks, and other characters of the sort can only attack from a space directly adjacent the one an enemy is occupying. Archers, Wizards, Summoners, Geomancers, and characters of this sort can attack from more spaces away, as they have bows and arrows, fire spells, and monsters to call that can fly to an occupied space to attack. There's an endless amount of strategy that can be applied to this game, and only the Gamers who are strictly forbidding themselves from the RPG or Strategy genres won't like it. Go buy it. $15.00. It's worth it.
Final Fantasy Tactics ********* 9 stars

Xenogears

Begin Review: This is my all-time favorite game. Period. If you've played it, then it should be yours too. If it isn't, then I suggest that you play it, and figure out what doesn't do it for you, and fix it. (And by it, I mean yourself, come on). Extremely religious tones overflow from this game, as the Ethos religion is being used as a cover-up for the superior Solarians to import humans from the surface of the planet to be used as slaves and guinea pigs in experiments. Wow. Who doesn't think that's cool? That's right. Cripples and losers who do nothing but play video games. Anyways, the battle system is amazing. You have 6 points that you are able to use each attack. Following me? Good. Triangle is a 1 point hit, Square is a 2 point hit, and X is a 3 point hit. As you might have guessed, the more points you use, the more damage you do. But that's not the half of it. Every person, (well, almost), has Deathblows. Every Deathblow must end in an X attack. Therefore, Triangle, Triangle, X would be a 5 point Deathblow. See? You can do as many combinations as you want with it, from 4 point Deathblows to 7, later on in the game. Back to the story line. You are a man named Fei Fong Wong, (could it be any more stereotypical?), and you live in a small town near the mountains. You have lived there for quite some time, and have no memory of where you came from, or who anyone that could help you remember is. Then, you find out about the civil war happening on the continent you live on. Enter 'The Gears'. These are weapons used in warfare, uncovered from ancient civilizations. They are humongous robots designed like humans, that require a pilot to operate. Fei ends up climbing in one, and Id takes over, and destroys the town you live in. You get kicked out, and begin your journey. Gears come in all shapes and sizes. Fat and slow, yet extremely hard hitting, skinny, extremely fast, and more technical than power fighters. Cool, huh? You progress through the story, the same stuff that you usually get, and then you find out that you have an alter-ego named Id, and he has all the power in the world. Destroying Gears that seem unbeatable by simply looking at them, Id is easily the coolest person in the game. You soon find out, that, get this, Fei is the Slayer of God. Huh? That's right. He was put on this planet to kill god, after the villains of the story resurrect him, that is. If this isn't enough incentive to get you off your ass to go and buy it, then find someone who'll let you borrow it. Then buy it to play over and over. $30.00. EXTREMELY worth it.
Xenogears ********** 10 STARS!