JohnnyBGamer

Press Start – The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Zero Impressions

“Ugh, you’re going to play that anime game?”

“Yeah. Why?”

“Oh, nothing…”

Wyatt claims he despises anime games. I asked him to clarify his disgust. When pressed, he said he loves something like the Final Fantasy VII Remake and yet can’t handle to watch me play The Legend of Heroes: Trails from Zero. I think that’s kinda fair. Final Fantasy VII Remake features fantastic graphics and a relatively quick moving storyline; Trails from Zero features a mixture of old school graphics and what I’ve read as described as a slow burn in regards to gameplay / story.

I’ve read about the The Legend of Heroes series, especially on Twitter, for quite sometime. Never once did I think of playing it until I read that Trails from Zero was an excellent starting point. So I bought the game to see what all the hype was about.

The Legend of Heroes: Trails from Zero opens with protagonist Lloyd Bannings, rookie police detective, as he travels to the city-state of Crossbell. There he is assigned to the Special Support Section (SSS), to do odd jobs in hopes of regaining the citizens of Crossbell City’s trust (who think the government is inept compared to the Bracer’s Guild).

For our first mission, we were tasked with going down into the Geofront and ridding it of monsters.

Somewhere along the way, we heard crying coming from one of the pipes. We investigated and found a boy! The boy said that he was exploring with his friend… who had gone missing. So we went to find the friend. In short, we rescued the boys only to be confronted by a huge monster. As we grew ready to be destroyed by the beast, some dude from the Bracer’s Guild came a slew him. We were saved.

We returned to the surface only to catch an interview between the Bracer’s Guild dude and a reporter. She was going to report on the ineptness of the police department (figures). Just then, our phone rang, we were asked to report back to police headquarters immediately. We were in trouble.

Fast forward to that night, Lloyd was going to have to make a decision on whether to stay with the SSS or quit. The boys, whom Lloyd saved in the Geofront, showed up and thanked Lloyd for the awesome job he had done in saving them.

I don’t know what it was, but I liked the simple act of the boys saying thank you. I’m about an hour or two in, and I can’t wait to see what happens next.

Adoption Update – We’re Done

For more than three years, Tabitha and I have ridden the roller coaster of emotions that comes with the adoption process. Every child that is ever mentioned to us, by our caseworker, we say yes to; Every child I find on the TARE website that we are interested in, we say yes to as well. Yet despite being more than ready / willing to receive a child into our home, we have heard nothing.

Tabitha and I both felt God call us to adoption. So we were obedient and answered that call through:

Pursuing training.
Opening our home to case workers.
Most importantly, by keeping our hearts open.

But we feel God closing the door on our adoption journey. This is not how I thought this scenario would end. We notified our case worker, yesterday, that we are closing our home to adoption.

I’m not sure what the future holds. I know that we were obedient to what God called us to. We were talking, in Sunday School, about how you need to present your need to God and be okay with His answer. God has not said no, to adoption, but perhaps not yet.

Wyatt told me that the adoption process hasn’t been for naught, we did adopt our dog, Gus, during this time. So, there is that.

Until God says otherwise, the Texas Hall’s will remain a family of three. And perhaps that is all we need to be.

Glorious Stupidity – Avatar: The Way of Water

Wyatt and I went and experienced Avatar: The Way of Water over the holidays. For a little over three hours, we were mesmerized by the world of Pandora. Immersed by way of 3D, excellent sound design (which no one talks about), and recliners. It was glorious! I am still in awe over the world that director James Cameron invited us into.

What is weird is that Avatar wasn’t about the story. There was a story, however subtle it may be. Jake, who became an avatar in the first film, finds himself with Blue Girl (Neytiri), raising a family in the Pandorian jungles. Everything is right with the world… until the villain from the first movie comes back as an avatar, and threatens Jake’s family by hunting them down. Knowing that the bad guy will never stop in his quest for vengeance, Jake takes his family and goes to the Water Tribe. There they:

Find comfort / safety.
Make new friends with all the aquatic creatures. All of them. Including a 10-15 minute film sequence between a boy and his whale. (You read that right.) What How to Train Your Dragon did with dragon flight, Avatar 2 does with swimming with a whale. I seriously could have watched more of that.
And then battle against the humans / evil Na’vi, who, to lure Jake out of his water refuge, have started to kill the whales.

It’s epic.

It’s stupid.

And it is glorious, all at the same time.

I have never had a movie, where I can’t even remember the character’s names, stick with me like this. Some odd melding of technology, world building, sound design and beauty.

Removing my 3D glasses and walking out of the theater, I was bummed that I wasn’t in Pandora anymore.

Makes me excited about the future of film and technology. James Cameron brings it in spades.

I can’t wait for Avatar 3: The Fire Nation Rises. Complete with rideable fire slugs.

Fade to Black

Wyatt and I were watching Stranger Things last night. The episode ended on a pretty bad note, with one of the characters being devoured by some of the Upside Down’s monsters. The screen faded to black as we were left to imagine the worst.

Life is kind of like that, right? Except instead of life fading to black, life continues on. Allowing us to:

Make choices / practice the whole free will thing
Invest in relationships
Educate ourselves for our betterment / Pick up a hobby

We find that life is filled with enough drama as is.

While our personal screens, in life, will fade to black one day, today is not that day.

So go out and live… or as I have done today, go back to work after a 12 day vacation (or not, choices).

Maybe schedule some time to watch more of Stranger Things too. I know he lives… but I want to make sure just in case.

Rules of the Game – Don’t Be A Jerk

Last night, I was playing Fall Guys with Wyatt. We were having a good time. We loaded into a game mode called Treat Thieves. In Treat Thieves, you have to either:

Defend the candy/tag people out (they go to jail until someone hits the release button).
Seek the candy/hold onto it until you reach the other end of the level and place it in your team’s goal.

I was playing defense and guarding the jail release button when someone from my team came up and hit the button. What? We had 5 out of 8 players in jail at the time. If we had gotten all 8 players in jail, we would have won the game.

“Wyatt, did you see that?”

“No.”

“That guy, our team mate, just let the other team go.”

At first I thought my team mate didn’t know what he was doing. First time and all that, right? Wrong. He continued to press the button, releasing all the other team’s players from jail.

“What is wrong with this guy?”

I ranted and raved, yelling at the TV screen in disgust.

He released everyone again!

“AHHHHHHHH!”

Our game of Treat Thieves soon came to an end.

Surprise! We lost.

I have no clue what was going on with my team mate, but he was behaving like a jerk.

Moral of the Story: Don’t be a jerk. It cost us the game.