Synful Take! Stranger of Paradise :FF Origins

Hey everyone! So, few things first! I got my new keyboard and hopefully this will keep me motivated to bring out more blogs. It’s a bit on the tiny side which is a good thing as far as having some space on my desk finally. I had a huge ass keyboard that got drenched in coke zero. The keyboard isn’t the real reason why we are here typing away. It is Stranger of Paradise FF Origins. This game on average got around a 72 on Metacritic which is decent and that sounds about right. Bullhead and I pretty much went through most of the game together. We also completed it and got the platinum on it, closing out that chapter of gaming.

Overall, the game is decent. I had a lot of fun with the Co-op aspect. It was a standard create a room or invite into the room but drop in and out could only happen while near a save/cube point. A huge negative that I found during the co-op was how things were set up as far as characters. For example, if Bullhead was Jack, the main character and I joined up on his game, my character would be one of the other two party members that he already had preset. Now here is the split, the gear you carry on your main would transfer with you as you play with friends as the second or third player in party. However your character would wear on a cosmetic level, the armor that your friend has equipped for that character. So the entire time you are collecting new armor, you will continue to look the same if you are not Jack.

The game was more on a linear pattern with confusing maps down the road the more you progressed. It was mission based, basically you select a mission, and you get dropped into an instance. After going from games like Horizon Forbidden West and Elden Ring it was a decent change of pace but at the same time felt very limited in what it would offer. It made that back up when it came to the combat and job systems.

Stranger of Paradise offers 28 different classes. Sounds like a lot right? It gets even better. The game also offers up several weapon types for those classes changing out the skill sets you can use. For the most expert classes you can actually mix and match some weapons while also having two classes equipped which can be changed with a push of a single button. The story of the game was were things became divided for most audiences. I personally liked the story because it had such a cringy vibe to it. It was an odd sense of comedy that came with how Jack carried himself in most missions. One train that he exhibit had me in tears because every time someone wanted to explain something to him he would ignore or interrupt the other character. Most games the protagonist would listen and be respectful even if it was the enemy talking.

Overall, the game was alright, I would have to say 7/10. If you are a fan of Final Fantasy content, definitely give this one a shot. It’s not the greatest game but it’s alright for what it tried to accomplish. Anyways always remain epic! Have a nice day! Also, if you want to catch me live, I am live usually on midnight Friday – Monday.

Synful Take: Elden Ring

Hey everyone!

I know it’s been a while again. I am terrible at this. I get it! Maybe if my wife can gift me one of those mechanical keyboards through my Amazon wishlist and I’ll remain committed to typing hah.

Click clack click clack ooooo

So Elden Ring has dropped and everyone is loving it. Ranging from hardcore fans to people who don’t even know that this game comes from a long line of Souls/Borne titles. So I would like to share my experience of the game as of now. I have beaten the game and quite a few bosses. Most of the late game content I had to do by myself for a few reasons like a friend wasn’t on or co op wasn’t working well for some unknown reason.

Here we go!

This game is truly amazing. When coming into the open world scene I was amazed by the sight of the land. I ran out and was immediately assaulted by a golden knight on a horse. At this moment I knew I was playing a Souls/Borne game. I got together with my friend Bullhead and we explored most of the immediate area. Collecting items and weapons. Fighting random soldiers from the castle and running from dragons by a lake. Every moment was just filled with mystery. Every time we found a cave or an underground ruin, we would explore these areas throughly with out the slightest clue to what can happen next.

Hot!

Now here’s the spicy part. Another game that dropped in 2017 if I remember correctly, was rated on the same levels of Elden Ring. It was 10/10s across the board for most. I and a few others didn’t agree. This game is Breath of the Wild and before you say Sony Pony, I have always loved my Zelda games before Mario games and most games alike. I was truly excited for the new console and a new Zelda game but it let me down instantly, with vast open lands and no content to really explore. It was either land, boss dungeon or shrine for the most part with no variety. Weapon durability killed the experience for me. I loved the combat and the physics and finding things out on that level but it wasn’t enough. Elden Ring was what I wish BOTW was and hope that BOTW 2 will be.

Weeeee

In the end I definitely recommend this game for both the casual and the hard core elite. I don’t know if I wanna do scores for my Synful takes but if we really had to, this would be a 10/10 game. I don’t see any game topping Elden Ring this year at this rate but we shall see. Anyways always remain epic! Have a nice day!

Here we go again…

It is I, the great Syniax! Yep back at it again. Got a lot on my mind when it comes to gaming and now with the free time I’ve gain for streaming I’ve been getting back to that. If you don’t know I am a streamer over on twitch.tv/syniax go ahead and check me out while I try out most games I can get my hands on. I am a variety streamer and have been since 2014. I’ve tried to do the one game thing for the stream at one point but it didn’t work out because usually as far as having time to game and stream usually they happen at the same time. So variety streamer it is.

Twitch Streamers Are Getting Paid $50,000 An Hour To Play New Games: They  Deserve It

This year has been rough when it comes to gaming and trying to keep focus. With my grandmother passing away this year it really threw me off my game no pun intended. The only titles I would play is Final Fantasy VII and X with my brother (OH and Man of Medan), especially when we got a chance with the rest of the family to be under one roof (vacation home) for about two weeks. I really enjoyed that time that time with the family.

Final Fantasy X and its infamous laughing scene are 20 years old today |  Rock Paper Shotgun

Recently I’ve been able to get back on my grind with gaming. Last year I completed I think 35 games all together. The year before that I completed 20. This year not so much, I had random goals, like trying to get at least 10 platinums and 10 JRPGS. The JRPG goal was a bit much… I recently cleared Tales of Arise and that was an amazing game. I even did the plat for that game and it was awesome. The only issue with so many games in the backlog is this title took over 50+ hours maybe into the 60s if I remember correctly. Moving forward I will try to complete more games as we roll into december. I will be happy if I can atleast do 10 games completed and 10 platinums for the year. Next year we will beat more games and clear out more of the backlog that I have going for myself.

Decade of Achievements: PlayStation Trophies Ten Years Old Today

The channel itself has become a bit more focused on my Playstation games but I will be playing some Nintendo and Xbox games. For example Halo Infinite is set to drop in the beginning of December I think and I will tackle that and see how that goes. I might even play the campaign. Call of Duty Vanguard and Back 4 Blood have been amazing games with friends. I’ve been messing around with those titles here and there to break up the pattern of gaming I have set for myself.

Back 4 Blood review: "An utter Game Pass boon" | GamesRadar+

This has been pretty much what has been going on as of late. A lot of streaming and trying to finish out games, some of them I will even plat for Playstation. I will try to be some what productive and consistent with my blog. At least one post a week if I can. Maybe I will start doing video blogs. We shall see how everything goes. Thanks for the support and I am out! Always remain epic!

Syniax

Excited For E3… Xbox E3

Hey everyone it is your friendly gamer Syniax here with another late blog/post/rant. I know I keep saying I will be consistent and I am everything but consistent, but here I am and lets get right to it.

Here is E3 2021's full schedule | Dot Esports

So E3 is literally just around the corner and we are all going through the hype cycles for games like Horizon Forbidden West, a glimpse of Ragnarok from God of War or even something pushing us in the direction of the next Final Fantasy VII Remake. Everyone knows that I am a huge fan of Playstation and Square Enix, especially around E3 Season. Here is the kicker though, I am not worried about what they will or will not show this E3 or in the season of because as we all know Playstation didn’t want to be apart of E3…yet again. I am excited to see what Xbox has to offer.

Xbox Series X review | TechRadar

You read that right… or at least I hope you did because I am awful at writing. I am excited for everything Xbox this go around. We already know Playstation has had a huge lead over the Xbox. We know that Xbox has been trying everything to market Game Pass but actually get Triple A exclusives from Xbox Studios that are worth a damn ( yes this is my opinion so crying will not work here). We also know that Xbox has acquired Bethesda. That means they got access to so many first person shooters and the chance to make them exclusive on top of that which we all hope they will. Now the issue is, What will they do with all this? What will come of the acquired Bethesda and the studios they had acquired overtime.

Microsoft to acquire ZeniMax Media and its game publisher, Bethesda  Softworks, for $7.5 billion - Stories

I want to see so much good pour out of E3 over Xbox. They mention they will have a 3 hour segment and I think this was including the Bethesda Showcase. I really want to see banger after banger being planned. I hope to see more Halo Infinite and maybe toss up some Fable or something to get the crowd going. People need to be able to believe in Xbox again and its rough because its been so long since they put something out with quality. It just seems they wanna throw in so much into GamePass and make that more of a value but yet the games coming out of Xbox Studios are not even worth a damn. We shall see how things go in the future for Xbox this weekend. We can only hope for the best at this point.

Halo Infinite should close the ring that is Master Chief and Cortana's saga  | GamesRadar+

Thanks for everyone who stopped by to read my bit of randomness… again I will try to maintain blogging and possibly vlogging. Goodnight and always remain epic!

$69.99!? Nope.

Super Mario Maker 2 level turns World 1-1 on its side - Polygon

Hey everyone! Syniax here with another blog post/rant. It’s amazing how far we have come in the gaming industry and the gaming community. Games become more and more realistic as we go through the generations. We’ve seen emotions expressed on their face while amazing stories being told and unfolded. As we get with 5 friends and strategically plan out how we will do a raid on a boss palace. How we can get dropped down on a map of 100+ people and take each other out in a huge epic battle royale.

5 ways to make money in gaming - MWEB Gamezone

One thing that has been the norm while the gaming industry has been developing games was the price point. We are usually not behind the financials or paying attention to it much because we are playing these video games. We know that of course with inflation, that games will be more and more expensive to make. With the number of people on board to make a triple-A game and the amount of money needed to pay those people. It’s gonna cost a bit of money. In the past two generations for gaming, we have seen the rise of Downloadable Content (DLC) and Micro-transactions to cover the cost or get more revenue into the gaming industry. Whether it’s being done for greed or to support the developers we do not know because we don’t see that break down.

NBA 2K21 on Twitter: "8️⃣ Relentless. Driven. A true competitor. We  celebrate Kobe Bryant as our Cover Athlete for the Current Gen Mamba  Forever Edition 🐍 #NBA2K21… https://t.co/BSBWOiKL0U"

Now we are going into the next generation of gaming, Playstation 5 and the Xbox Series X will be coming out during Holiday of 2020. None of us thought that they would increase the price of the games at any point but it looks like someone will take a stab at that thought. NBA 2k21 will be the first game for the next-gen to be 69.99. Which is weird because it will have its current-gen version out.

NBA 2K21's PS5 and Series X versions will cost $69.99 - The Verge

Here is why it is weird. Everyone it seems at this point that cared to speak of next-gen and where their projects are taking them said the same thing. If you buy the PS4/Xbox One version of the game. You will be able to upgrade to the next-gen version of that console for free. Some have a limited time on the upgrade. Some say it will happen with a patch and that’s it. But everyone was on the same page for the most part. NBA 2k21 decided to be different about the issue. They wanted to charge gamers 69.99 for the upgrade. I say upgrade because that is all NBA 2k has been through the years… maybe a new mode here and there but for the most part, it comes with polish and some new mechanics if any every year. I can’t speak on this game per se till I do some digging but I feel that if I play a version of 2k during PS4 early years and play the NBA2k20 it will not be any different. In my opinion, I feel that sports games should just be 39.99 and keep it at that.

Now the question is should we expect future PS5/Xbox Series X games to be the same? I don’t want to accept this because I feel some of the current games we deal with will take advantage of that. How do we agree that a game should be 69.99 if everyone will just take that price point and roll with it? How many games that were 59.99 this generation was worth that 59.99 price mark? For example Call of Duty released a game that was 59.99 and it didn’t have a single-player mode in it. Just multiplayer. I think Star Wars Battle Front for this current-gen along with TitanFall had the same situation. They came out at 59.99 yet didn’t offer a full game experience.

Gift This, Not That: 'Call Of Duty: WWII' Vs 'Star Wars: Battlefront II'

Now when you speak of narrative-driven games that Playstation is known for. You can say the same. Most are just single-player experience with either poorly made multiplayer experiences or nothing at all. Also, one of the infamous issues with some story-based games is the story continues outside of the game but to get access to that you will have to pay another 20-30 dollars for the downloadable content. So basically we got an incomplete game? Yet it was 59.99 and don’t get me started with the “games as a service” model.


I don’t think we are ready for the 69.99 price mark in my opinion because we would love to know where that increase will go. Will microtransactions and DLC stop because of this increase or will they just do all 3 in a game to funnel more money into the company. Are the developers getting the good chunk of this money or someone sitting on the CEO throne who doesn’t even know the difference between God of War and MLB be cashing that check? We shall see how all of this will unfold in the future for the next generation. My only advice now is do we need to shop day one for these games? Do we need to pre-order with this next generation? I think I will wait for the price drops since I don’t have the type of coin needed to compete within this growing industry.

Short-sighted, Greedy Corporate America is Robbing Us of Our Middle-Class:  Happy May Day - Paperblog

Back with a Vengence?

Hey everyone… I am back once again. Not gonna lie I saw a charge on my card renewing my site name and hosting. I won’t say that I forgot about my page but I will say that it has been a while again since I’ve updated this. With everything going on in life, work, wife, kid, cat, life… I have been trying to maintain beating my record of 2019 and 20 games done. I got off with a strong start this year for 2020 but with Covid-19 running around and most of us having to stay home. I got my schedule reduced so I have a bit more time to game. Usually, I get about a good 3 hours a day on my off days now.

I usually take 2 of those hours from 1 to 3pm Tuesday through Friday and I stream on twitch.tv/syniax . I’ve been streaming games like Modern Warfare and FFXIV. Also streaming the games I am trying to complete. Currently working on Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order. I recently finished Far Cry Primal and I might a little peace about that and my two cents on being forced to play a full game when I feel like I should only play the main story… but that’s a different topic altogether. Right now I am currently at 15 out of 25 games I want to finish this year. I plan afterward to just take it easy with gaming and put some time into playing games like FFXIV get my social life somewhat a jump start.

I usually don’t hang out with people out in the Florida area and it’s very rare if I do. Most of us play games together for the most part and I have friends from New York that I love playing games with. I would like to maintain those social aspects of life if I can. I have been brushing away a lot of people with this 25 game goal when it comes to multiplayer games. Part of the reason is because of the 25 game goal. The other part is basically watching an almost 2-year-old destroy my office and everything in the house so I gotta keep eyes on her all the time. Don’t get me wrong shes a blessing and a half but she is a handful and If I am trying to squeeze an hour or two of gaming while having her around I gotta get a game that I can pause. I can’t be in a party game and letting people down mid raid because I got my responsibilities. So I choose to play single-player games mostly.

Anyways enough with the life randomness and what is going on. My goals this year are obviously the 25  games first. I feel like I am on a roll when it comes to that goal as of right now with 15 games. Currently, I have Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 on the side for my Nintendo switch that is going smoothly so that will add on to the number. Also, I have a few Playstation VR titles that I want to look into since I have the free time from 1-3pm most weekdays. Blood and Truth is a lot of fun but also just 5 hours. That makes for a quick game to knock out. After all, this is said and done I would like to start 100%ing / Platinum my games on Playstation. It’s pretty obvious that I favor the PlayStation over Xbox so I will be focusing my trophy hunting at some point but in a casual way while streaming games like FFXIV and Modern Warfare depending.

Thanks for everyone who stopped by to read my bit of randomness… again I will try to maintain blogging and possibly vlogging. Goodnight and always remain epic!

Resident Evil 2 Remake. Done.

Hey everyone! Syniax here with another blog/half-ass review on the game Resident Evil 2. I remember when around the time Resident Evil 2 Came out the only games I cared about was Final Fantasy games and Resident Evil games. I was so obsessed with the ins and outs of both of these franchises. I could go on and on about Final Fantasy but this blog today, it’s about Resident Evil.

Image result for final fantasy vii and resident evil 2

I remember playing the original one on the Playstation one and thought this was one of the greatest games of all time. When they finally released Resident Evil 2 I had to get my hands on it. I begged with my grandmother to get me this game for the longest time but I did the same thing I did with Final Fantasy 7 and was use my allowance to rent the game to death and have the guy at the little video store just give up on me and give me the game with all the inserts and case. The same thing worked for Resident Evil 2.

Image result for resident evil 2 classic

I remember playing this game over and over and trying to see if I can beat my original time and a friend of mine was in a league of trying to do the same. Trying to finish the extra modes including the Tofu one. Now fast forward into 2019 and they released the remake version and wow, just wow! I am truly amazed at how they redid everything from the ground up and basically kept the game intact. What did bother me though was some of the small things that I wanted to see in the remake but what I thought at the time didn’t really make it. Such as the shotgun guy. Apparently, he makes a whole new appearance that I won’t spoil.

Image result for resident evil 2 kendo

The gameplay of this game is amazing. It almost feels exactly like playing Resident Evil  7 but in the third person. The reason why would have to be the RE Engine that is being used. UI and movement are basically the same. You can’t move to fast and keeps it at a certain pace just like Resident Evil 7. What they kept from Resident Evil 7 was the lighting and feel of an actual horror game. After the previous installments of Resident Evil 4-6 going into the direction of an action horror game. You couldn’t help but miss the terrifying moments of Resident Evil 1-3. Luckily with this remake, they brought it back and we can only hope for more down the road.

Image result for resident evil 3 cover

The story is practically the same with a few things changed around for a smoother experience. The part I really loved most about this game was how it captured the same game back in 1998 and was able to put it on a modern level that fans and newcomers can both enjoy. Capcom has definitely set the bar when it comes to remakes. Hoping that Nintendo takes notes on that remake of Link’s Awakening. In my opinion, they should have done a BOTW look with Link’s Awakening storyline and randomness. I completed this game and I still go back to it from time to time to play because it is so good. I should concentrate on my backlog though.

Image result for links awakening

The next game that was in my backlog was Ratchet and Clank but being that I love to procrastinate, I finally got to writing this blog and now I gotta write Ratchet and Clanks blog soon after since I already beat that game.  The game I am actually playing as game #5 is Minecraft Story Mode. Stay tuned for another blog with yours truly. Always remain epic!

Image result for ratchet and clank

Kingdom Hearts 3. Done.

Hey everyone. Syniax here with another blog post and trying to remain active just like I said I would. This one is about Kingdom Hearts 3. A game that was technically not in the backlog but I had to get it done once it dropped. This game was truly amazing but at the same time, I felt it could have been better in some areas and other areas were completely unnecessary.

Image result for kingdom hearts 3

So let’s start off with the bad of this game in my opinion. One of the things in the beginning which I thought was cool that got really repetitive quickly were the attractions. These are skills that you gain over the course of the battle which turns into a little mini cinematic. For example, one attraction is you summon a pirate boat that swings side to side attacking the enemies with water splashing or the boat nailing them. You can skip or possibly turn off the cinematics but the attack in on itself is cinematic which takes you from the fighting and combat that you are familiar with when playing with Keyblade wielders.

Sora aux commandes du Pirate Ship. - Kingdom Hearts 3

Other attractions put you into a seat of a blaster cannon, wherein which you shoot enemies with a blaster vehicle and again taking you away from the actual keyblade gameplay. It also tends to make some of the battles a bit easier once you were able to trigger such an event but that could easily be remedied by increasing the difficulty.

Image result for kingdom hearts 3 attractions

The story was pretty good. It’s really hard to go into detail about the ending and a lot that was going on without giving out spoilers but the game was pretty good when it came down to its story. It keeps you wondering and also giving you tidbits of the past to keep you informed about what is going on and your mission in the game.  They also have a video for you to watch to brush up or even catch you up on the series but that didn’t do too well as far as information. It got the surface details out of the way but as far as deeper situations it didn’t really cover in my opinion and from what I remember.

Image result for kingdom hearts 3 attractions

The combat was amazing. Each keyblade had its own skill set wherein which you can summon new powers for each keyblade depending on which you were using. My favorite would have to be the keyblade obtained from The Carribean. Its first skill you can use is “Highwind” and turns your keyblade into a spear. Immediately it clicked for me as an easter egg paying some respects to Cid who is known to use a spear and also flies the Highwind.

Image result for kingdom hearts 3 highwind

The one thing I will say that was a huge improvement for me was the gummi ship scenarios. Finally, they made it where you don’t have to deal with it so much to get from world to world. And even if you had to do combat it was actually a lot better than its previous renditions.

Image result for kingdom hearts 3 highwind

Overall this game is amazing. The story amazing and the combat amazing. Some areas could have used a little bit of work but overall, epic! Anyways I am out and will be getting that Resident Evil 2 half ass review out soon! Always remain epic!

 

Image result for resident evil 2 remake

The Witcher 3. Done.

Hey everyone! Syniax here with my first completed game of the year and one step closer to cleaning out the backlog! The Witcher 3, quite the amazing game but not going to lie it had its moments where I felt like omg… please hurry up!

Image result for witcher 3 main line quest

So the game starts off pretty slow for me with the crazy introduction of the characters along with the Wild Hunt. The basis of the story is basically trying to find Ciri. Pretty much a daughter figure to Geralt the main character. In all honesty, I’ve never played nor read any of the books previous to this game so I don’t actually know any of these people. I just know that the game was said to be a really great story and a lot of fun.

Image result for witcher 3 main line quest

The quest in the game was another factor that bothered me but at the same time had me going for more. Some quest would be apart of your main quest line. I love to go through the mainline like I would if I was on a Netflix binge. I hate filler episodes though and that’s what side quests feel like to me. In The Witcher 3 it was very different how they did their side quest though (not all of em) Going into a mainline story quest and having it become interesting as the quest unfolds, just to turn into side quest and having the option to continue that little branch of the story. It might not have anything to do with anything but at that point during the main quest, you are already hooked. You need to know more and that’s what kept happening to me. I enjoy the game for the most part.

Image result for witcher 3 main line quest

I really didn’t like the weapon durability even though it wasn’t like Breath of the Wild where you take 3 swings and your sword is done. The combat in this game at first was weird because it didn’t feel like it connects. Games like Batman Arkham Asylum had combat that “connects” and felt amazing. This game didn’t do that. After a while, I actually got used to the game’s combat system and started to enjoy it even further. When I got the whirlwind ability, it became a lot more interesting fighting bosses and regular mobs. The combat almost felt like a very watered down version of Dark Souls with rolling and taking swings at the precise time.

Image result for witcher 3 main line quest

The story itself was amazing once I started to understand what was going on with the quest lines. After a bit, it started taking more of a linear approach to the quest even though some of them will still branch off into a series of quest just for the one quest. I don’t want to call it padding but it almost felt as if that was the case yet the quest still proved to be interesting. Anyways this game definitely took a long time to get through. I think started this a week before new years and I am just finishing it up. Usually, I can get maybe 1 or 2 hours a night but some nights I don’t even bother, hanging with my family and all.  Alright, now its time to go for my next game. It’s looking like with the timing that will be getting ready to play Kingdom Hearts 3! Always remain epic!

 

Image result for kingdom hearts 3