From Star Wars to Final Fantasy, a journey of epics.

In the recent weeks one of my closest friends has been sitting down with myself, and a few of our other nerd-ites, to enjoy the epic space opera known as Star Wars. Normally this wouldn't be an occasion to write about but this is his first time ever watching these movies. We gather at my abode, grab a few 6 packs of brew, and answer any questions this blooming future fan may have, ranging anywhere from "So are ewoks are young wookies?" To the aged question "What exactly is the force?".

As a fan of these movies since my early childhood I, along with the help of my compatriots, dissect and analyze this movie till we can't stand Jar-Jar's voice anymore. As we've been delving into the blurry depths of "midi-chlorians" and why episode 1 has so many racial stereotypes I began to think about other aspects of nerdom from my young humanhood that I may not have understood or maybe completely missed. Then it hit me, my favorite game of all time. If I can experience my ultimate movie series in an intelligent and analytic manner why not my ultimate game, FF4?

The next section may contain minor spiolers.

Final Fantasy IV. Orginally released in America as FF II on the SNES, FFIV is my bread and butter. From the transformation of the main character, Cecil, to the story of growth and sacrifice (and rebirth) of many main characters this game was always able to tug at my heartstrings.  It always felt "right" to me in everyway but I also haven't beat the game in almost 6 years. This got me thinking what did I miss while grinding out enemies on the moon to get that pink tail from a flan? What parts of the story would I take differently today?

Because of all this retro reminiscing I decided to go back and play, not only my favorite game in the series, but every game that I have played. I plan on playing FF I - FF X over the next few months and, again with the help of my closest nerds, plan on putting each story under the microscope and seeing what we find. This will be a journey of examinations, dissections and knowledge. I hope you're as interested as I am in what we may find.

~DSKehrli

Mh4u:Farming Earth Crystals

If you have ever played a Monster Hunter game chances are you came across one of the nefarious "Rust" or "Ancient" weapons. These weapons are unique in that they are the only weapons that can  found randomly while out on a quest. There is one for nearly every type of weapon and they all have one thing in common: LUDICROUS AMOUNTS OF EARTH CRYSTALS.
The crystals themselves are not an exceedingly rare item but they are an item that is used (far to often) in crafting new weapons and armor. Well the "Rust" and "Ancient" weapons take that to a whole new level, needing 30 for the first upgrade and 70 for the second.
You can farm them the normal way with a gathering set and head off to the Sunken Hollow (Earth Crystals are a fairly commonly mined item there) and get 5-11 crystals depending on your luck. Each run take roughly 5 minutes to complete so to have enough for the first upgrade you'll be looking at about half an hour of running around mining... I have found a way to get 99 in around 10 minutes.

You need to have a Low rank Basarios guild quest available, a good Hunting Horn or Hammer, and a few dungbombs.

Step one: Clear out your inventory and bring all the pickaxe you can.
Step two: Go off on the Basarios quest.
Step three: Beat the Basarios' head till right before you believe him to be KO'd (when the monster has stars above their head from to many headslams)
Step four: Beat on the poor monsters shins till he falls over.
STEP FIVE : This is the most critical step
Once the boulder dragon Is tried and flailing on the ground, you need to go after his head and KO him. If done correctly an invisible mining spot will appear right beside his back. This spot will not go away and you can mine till you have run out of picks. Throw a dung bomb and mine away!
Step Six: Finish off the sad little dragon and enjoy your Earth Crystals!!!

I will add some photos of the steps later

Happy Hunting
~DSKehrli

Final Fantasy Record Keeper

So for those of you that don't know Final Fantasy Record Keeper is an free android/ios game based off of all the FF games (well right now we only have 1, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 10 currently in game). It let's you relive key past events from the games by teleporting you into magical paintings (Super Mario 64 much?).

General Play:
In FFRK you aquire different characters such as Cloud (FF7), Kain(FF4) along with a cast of others from along the franchise history. On top of the characters from each universe you actually aquire armor, weapons and abilities from specific games like the Iconic Buster Sword from FF7 or the ability "Jump" from various Dragoons. If you use a character in (or have any gear equipped from) their own realm they get a hefty stat boost improving performance for those harder challanges.

Combat Details:
The combat is what won me over with the game, classic turn based battles with 5 selected heros fighting for 3 to as many as 10 fights in a row consisting of 3-4 waves of enemies each. I do miss the wandering around looking for the next boss to progress the story but FFRK isn't to heavy on story. It's a 10 min burst game great for breaks at work or school. You can assign 2 abilities (Fira, curaga, dark attack etc.) based on the classes of your favorite heros (or villains). Instead of using mana or mp l, each one of these abilites can only be used a handful of times per battle, sometimes starting with only 1 use! Every character also has an iconic special ability they have access to after dealing and receiving enough damage. For some it is a special attack that does great damage (Oblivion ftw!) or something more defensive like a group heal or casting stop and silence on the enemy team.
Due to only having 2 abilities per hero you have to really think about who you want on your team. Do I need extra healing? Can I inflict status ailments on this boss? What elemental attacks should I equip? etc etc The system does not let you switch gear or abilities in between fights so every fight needs to be prepared for preemptively.

Good, Bad, and the Glitchy:
Good-The game is still fairly new so as far as content there are only 50 or so missions to do and it definitely isn't for everyone as far as combat but most die-hard FF fans will get a kick out of it.
The events that are hosted to receive special heros (such as the one to get Aeris/Aerith currently going on) last plenty of time usually 2 weeks or more so it isn't a chore to grind out missions.

Bad/Ugly(ish)-One slight disappointment though is that they have micro transactions. I remember the good ol' days when you could get everything in a game for zilch,  zip and zero real life dollars besides the payment for the game itself.  While you don't need to pay for a thing in the game to get any other special abilities besides the stock ones on you heros you need to purchase in games items for a random roll to get any. I myself am incredibly unlucky and currently have a great hammer type weapon... that none of my current classes can equip.

All in all FFRK is a gem of a mobile game and one of the best I have dabbled with in a while. Still hoping to see a lot more content in the future but for the time being it is a solid 8.5/10

~DSKehrli

The Bearded Wonder

Hello to one and all, big and tall, gorgeous and ugly! This the one-stop - shop for opinions, reviews and ideas of the Grand Immortal DSK! (You know, the guy who killed all the dragons? No? Look me up!)  This blog is an accumulation of my gamer brain mixed with my nerd tendencies. I'll be reviewing a lot of handheld games for 3DSXL, Vita, android devices and when I get the time to enjoy the comfort of my couch PS4 & PS3 games.

Anything nerdy is up for discussion,  from Dr.Who fan theories to "Who shot first" arguments to the problems with RNGod in games. This is what we love, this is what we live for. Hopefully you enjoy your stay and learn a new MH4U tactic while your here.

~DSKehrli