GinnyLyn

THERE we go! 2nd banner, 2nd banner, 2nd banner, WOOT! Bad me: Frelling bevel and emboss it! Good me: Ah, so you like it now? Bad me: Shut up! Good me: No, YOU shut up! *fight ensues, Good me wins* Just a touch more tweakeneth, and it's a solid 1o for me.

Play with the placement of the text more on (darn)banner, and you could have something there. As for the newest one, you've mixed familiar images with less familiar ones. Good. Now let's see you do something with the background. Also, a good balance for the banner would be to have all four boys the same "size", if possible. Takato got cut off, and Davis looks way in the back there. ^^ Keep working those banners!

*thwaps Sem* Dangit, quit taking my words! :p Here in Texas, you only get 6 numbers/letter. Not much to work with. Hmmm...how about...GD CHAR....no, no... Meh. *curls in corner* Very clean and nifty. Just...a little unrealistic. :bluesweat 9.3/1o.

My dear dear Mitch... I hope I sorta got across what I was trying to say in our AIM convo, too. This speaks of one of my personal pet peeves--fake people. And into my blog I wrote of a similar situation, though now I see what I was really trying to write about, thanks to you and this. Stone can be warmed by the distant sun or by blood-filled hands. *soft smile* I'm learning from you. Go Hctim.

Sem said what I was going to say. I watched the animation for a full minute, trying to detect when the animation looped back. But dangit, Jamesy, you did an EXCELLENT job keeping that sucker clean. (That was a compliment, Ginny style. :p) Can't think of much more to say. (Frelling multimedia classes forever corrupting my mind.) Something something balance mumble mumble? Bweh heh. Site Directors don't need ratings. They are above them. ;) :D

As far as the interview goes, here's what it said: [quote][i]Yoshinori Kitase: Producer[/i] [b]Q:[/b] Where any specific ideas or concepts from previous FF installments (especially from FFVII, FFVIII, or FFIX) use in FFX? [b]A:[/b] Nothing in particular. Actually, we followed a theme of avoiding popular elements from previous installments. The elimination of the world map and ATB system are examples of this...[/quote] Gasp, shock, horror? Not really. Apparentally, you aren't reading the [i]whole[/i] question here. Yoshinori answered in reference to 7 through 9 alone, which means that the first 6 weren't even touched on. dark_serena, I suggest you find some way to get ahold of the first six games (available in PS1 as Origins (1 and 2), Anthology (3 and 5), and Chronicles (4 plus ChronoTrigger (btw, I thought that ChronoCross stunk in comparison to Trigger, but that's a whole 'nother discussion entirely)). By condemning a game that was reaching for the roots again, you condemned about half of the series. You're taking FFX, and Final Fantasy itself, out of context. (returning argument back to everyone in general) Let's retrospect, shall we? Right now, I'm in the midst of FF, ya know, number 1, the one that started it all. And, gasp, shock, horror, no ATB. (Wanna know what ATB is? An easy way to tell is to go into a random battle. If you can leave your characters sitting there in the battle without either pausing or watching the monsters attack them, then you do not have ATB.) Somewhere about the time of ChronoTrigger, an option to turn ATB on or off was offered. So perhaps FFX was touching back on the way olden days. (To be honest, ATB-less battles rather threw me too, but with the battle menu at the right side of the screen, ya know, the turn menu, eliminated the whole point of ATB.) I already covered the world map issue, which isn't as greivious a sin as it's being made out to be. Right now, I'm having a frelling time in FF figured out where the HADES I am! Sure, money and experience are great, but I'd like to back to the game itself sometime soon. And, gasp shock horror again, [i]everything[/i] is linear. Some lines just have more lines running off them than others do. There are moments in every game where you [i]have[/i] to remain linear, no matter what. IE, when you were going stuck in ShinRa headquarters in FF7, [spoiler]after Sephiroth attacks and steals JENOVA[/spoiler]. You can't just suddenly decide you can leave and go chase Chocobos, nope; you've got a bloody trail to follow and a new member to find. The biggest point that needs to be made here is how the Final Fantasy series works. In case you haven't noticed, every game is different from the last. Why? Keeps it interesting, as was pointed out already. And each different thing allows the programmers and producers to see what works with the public and what does not. (My personal accusation of greivious sin is the stupid card game known as Tetra Master.) Did you notice, from 7 to 10, how the Summon Monsters ability changed from game to game? In 7, they appear, attack, and disappear, their appearance hampered by how strong the Materia was; plus, any person could use them. In 8 (which, IMO, is the worst of the FF lot, NOT X), the S.M.s, I believe, would actually stay until killed. In 9, again, the monsters came, attacked, and flew off, this time controlled by certain people. In X, the return of the S.M.s as playable characters was used again. We could spend all thread talking about the different magic systems, the equipping abilities, the items, and so on, but it all comes down to one point--FFs are different from each other. There is going to be stuff you like and stuff you hate. Whoopee. Right now, I have been playing another famous Gaming series, and found its most recent title lacking sorely because it copied too much of its previous titles. For my final blabber, try to look at all this from a programmer's point of view. There's a limited amount of space and time they were allowed to work with, so experimentation had to be tempered with knowing what worked best for the players. Voicing, I think, was a nice gamble, though it ate a LOT of memory up. The graphics, too, were a wonderful touch (though I agree strongly with Braidless Baka, there are several scenes that should have been FMV'd and they weren't SPOILER[spoiler]Auron's sending[/spoiler]SPOILER). Graphics also take up lots of space. The ATB/no ATB I've already talked about (and personally, next time they should invest in an option to turn it on or off), as well as the world map. There's programming that goes into both, and most likely, Yoshinori didn't want to admit that they wanted to cut time and cost by getting FFX out as soon as possible (which is something LOTS of games are suffering from). First times on new systems will always have problems (FF7's awful character polygons, ergh!). The point of an RPG is to tell a story with memorable characters. Sure, Tidus annoyed me, but he stayed true to character (User Name, I suggest you slog yourself back through the game--Tidus showed a lot more emotion than you thought you saw, but learned to mature and control himself as the knowledge revealed itself. That's characterization, my friend. That's the focus of an RPG). There's [i]plenty[/i] of FF characters that I think shoulda been dropped over a cliff into the sea with a rock tied around their neck (Yuffie, Squall, Aeris, Amarath, to name a few). But even these guys showed a bit of humanism to them. I thought it was a very nice touch to give character to the Aeons or some of them, in FFX. You are all entitled to your opinion, but, with all opinion discussions, I need to point what seems to stand out in the arguments: emotion driven generalizations equal beauties that you never fully realized, never will fully realize. I know I [i]hated[/i] ChronoCross with a passion after I beat it the first time. It was years before I ever dared to play it again. But I am grateful I did--there are beauties in there that only ChronoCross could show. So open your eyes and see the beauty. If I can do it, so can you. Give or take a few years. :p And with that, I am (hopefully) done.

We shall not talk of my Auron's game like that. I was a bit dismayed at no world map either at first, but by the time that started to become a problem, voila! the airship was under my control and it was just a matter of hopping to wherever I wanted to go. Yes, I understand the "feel" part about wandering the world map, but they had to shut off certain areas because of certain parts of the story line. To me, it made just as much sense as running through Macalania woods to reach Guadosalam on the other side as it did to move from the pixel pic of the forest to the pixel pic of the city. The only thing you really lost was the (IMO) awful, shrinked pixel images of the World Map. As far as the voices go, that was a welcome change. I mean, c'mon, text is still there for you to read it if you choose, but for me, I am glad they stuck the voices in. It helped me to better understand the character's thoughts and motivations at that point in time. You would not believe how many times I misinterpretted something because I (incorrectly) thought the character meant it a certain way. Frankly, I died of happiness when they were talking all through the game. (The lipsync coulda used more work.) The music was good, the art was fabulous, the characters could have been developed a little more, but on the whole, how can you possibly say this was a bad game? (I have more to say, but I need to get to work.)

Just before the Chocobo Race begins, Rinoa's eye is caught by a flash on the large projection screen that shows the races to the fans. "Hmm, looks like a birthday celebration...I wonder who...?" ~~~~~~~ OoC: Natch, our very own Mei! Happy birthday! :excited:

*is still in speechless awe* *directs Sara back to AIM convo they just had* *hold up a 9/1o card* :eek:

Yellow: Oh God no, not the cow, please not the--! Re: *sniff* Mmmm, good stuff. ~~~~~~~~ Yellow: Please don't trample on me, Mr. Spotted Elephant! Red: You can always spot the drug newbies. Sorry, the stuff around them lends terribly. ^^

What everyone else said. I would recommend trying to get away from lined paper if you can. If you prefer smoothy, more professional looking art, you can also spend extra time (if you have it--I know sometimes I don't) smudging the shaded areas. And use sharp edged erasers to highlight the lighter areas. Nifties on the details! 8.5/1o.

Shelia gave the thumbs up. "All right, but just know that I'm gonna keep an eye on you guys. LEVEL 3!" BrrrRRRAWWWRRRRRRRRRR! With a dry scrape, a Zombie Dragon slid into the Arena. [color=blue]"[i]Another dragon?[/i]"[/color] [color=darkblue]"Better watch your shoulder,"[/color] Auron chuckled. [color=teal]"Easily fixed. I'll just heal this guy and--"[/color] Cecil froze as he saw that his cure spell had no effect. "You wanted harder," Shelia called over the intercom. [color=teal]"Ah, you [i]did[/i] say you were going to keep an eye on us, right?"[/color]

Heads seem disproportinate to bodies. I didn't care too much for the first one. The second I like. I would like to see both with a little more cleanup and some color. Betcha they would kick! ^_^ 1st: 7/1o. 2nd: 8.8/1o.

Good Me: Pretty. Bad Me: Pretty plain, you mean. *two get into fight* I'm at a loss. I dunno if I like it or not. O_O But the blue gradient is niiiiiiiice...

It IS cute, in a giant, hairy beast with a bad overbite kinda way. ^^ LOVE the textures--too cool. (Must...learn...how to...do that.) And your shadows only add to it. I can find nothing wrong with this one. 1o/1o.

*snorts with laughter at that last line* Indeed, Sara's right. I'm going through a similar situation at the moment, 'cept I'm the [sarcasm]lucky[/sarcasm] brokeé. Hearts break, but hearts also heal. Chalk it up to experience in the school of Life and, yes, move on. Find ways to move on. Dwelling on it is not only not pretty, but a surefire way to kill one's self esteem.

OoC: Um, I wonder for how long we are all supposed to go for. I'll wait till sage tells us to hurry up and wrap it up. ^^; Or not. Read on. ~~~~~~ The arena was knee deep in water now, which was perfect for the Midgar Zolom. It slid through the water and made a perfect circle of its body in the room, with body length to spare. The hideous creature flickered its massive forked tongue rapidly, as if tasting victory. [color=darkblue]"I heard Sephiroth once slaughtered one of these on his own."[/color] [color=blue]"Yeah, but I bet we could do the same."[/color] Auron nodded. The Zolom lunged forward, sinking its fangs into Cloud's shoulder. Unlike the Red Dragon, the serpent's mouth was large enough to miss the shoulder guard completely and tear deeply into cloth and flesh. Cloud screamed, whether in horror at the monster's head being so close to his, in pain from the fangs touching together inside of him, or from anger that the monster should get the drop on him...it was uncertain. All he knew was that he had to get it off. Auron splashed through the water, his Masamune raised over his head. Due to the liquid and his own lack of speed, the Crimson Warrior was not fast enough--the Zolom wrapped its tail about his body and squeezed. In the viewing room, the crazed emcee was bouncing and yelling in glee. "THAT'S THE LAST TIME YOU FRELL WITH ME, YOU OLD GEEZER!" With his arms pinned to his side, Auron couldn't use his sword. Below him, Cloud's own left arm was locked in the Zolom's grip, rendering him helpless as well. In an act of desperation, Auron sank his teeth into the scaled tail. The Midgar Zolom hissed balefully and dropped Cloud, who fell into the ever rising water. Gasping for breath, Cloud quickly set to healing himself; above him, the Zolom was already retightening its squeeze on Auron and prepared to sink its fangs into him. Cloud's Mako eyes glowed venomously, and in his vengance, he felt the power of OmniSlash burst out of him. Holding his sword out, he leapt at the Zolom, ignoring the shoulder high water that slowed him done. Halfway through the attack, the Zolom released Auron and reared high, banging its head against the Arena ceiling. It could not avoid Cloud, who sprang high, his sword gleaming in the light, plunging into the serpent's skull. For a moment, everything froze. Then the Zolom rammed its head against the ceiling. [color=blue]"Oh [i]#*%^![/i] he's trying to crush me!"[/color] Cloud shifted himself away from the ceiling only to find himself dangling from his sword, still impaled into the monster's head. Hanging right in front of the Zolom's mouth. [color=blue]"Again, #*%^."[/color] The Zolom reached its tongue out and wrapped it around Cloud's ankle. Cloud could feel the hot breath, reeking of death and corpses. The serpent's gaze burned with fire and Cloud knew what was going to happen next. [color=blue]"AURON! It's gonna cast Beta!"[/color] Auron had to act fast--Cloud was right in the middle of the target range for the attack. He ran up the sepent's body, the water rising higher and higher behind him, then pulled out his sake bottle. "HOW CAN YOU DRINK AT A TIME LIKE THIS?!" the emcee cried out over the intercom. Behind him, the door creaked open. Auron held the mouthful of sake on his tongue for a moment, then spat it out onto his blade. The Masamune lit up with a unholy light, and tiny lights glowed as they revolved around it. With a stabbing motion, Auron sent the lights into the Midgar Zolom. The serpent writhed, trying to shake the lights away. In the process, Cloud and his sword slid out of its skull, and this invoked a death scream from the writhing monster. Both warriors fell into the water with loud splashes, and treaded water. Upstairs, the emcee was being arrested by security, and Shelia grabbed the microphone. "Are you guys ok?" Both waved back in response. The Zolom was dead. [color=blue]"Does this mean we've won?"[/color] [color=darkblue]"I do not know. It was supposed to be us against each other till one of us dropped. Somehow, I don't believe this was meant to be a part of the challenge."[/color] [color=blue]"Cid's got some explaining to do."[/color] [color=darkblue]"Mmm."[/color] ~~~~~~~~ The Battle Arena challenge could still be going on, Tasis. But I thought that was a nice twist.

Instead of Lulu we have JuuJuu! *FFX reference* PRETTIFULS! I like this quite very much. *is losing grip of English language and decides to stop*

All right, my other answer then is Bizarro Sephiroth: Birth of the God. And my question I asked still stands.

OoC: I'm assuming that Cloud is still a frog. ~~~~~~~~ [color=darkblue]"Thank you, Cloud."[/color] The pile of clothes that Cloud the frog was hiding in shrugged nonchalantly. When Auron drew close, however, the pile attempted to back away. [color=darkblue]"Look, I'm a gentleman. Far be it from me to take advantage of the situation. Especially considering you gave the cure to me first. Not nearly as cold as the others have made you out to be."[/color] The pile of clothes just sat there. [color=darkblue]"I'd much rather this be a fair fight, so--"[/color] Next thing Auron knew, the yellow-green frog was plastered to his face, croaking in what Auron guessed to be a battle cry. Auron rolled his good eye, and walked back to the gate where the female attendant Shelia was. [color=darkblue]"Excuse me, miss? I wonder if you can--"[/color] "Do you know you have a frog stuck to your face?" "No, but if you hum a few bars, I can fake it," the male emcee called. Cloud croaked loudly in their direction. [color=darkblue]"I agree,"[/color] Auron groaned. "Sorry. So, what can I do for you?" "And why da heck ain'tcha in the arena? The fight's not over!" the emcee hollered. [color=darkblue]"I would like a fair fight, not a frog squish."[/color] "Ya big dummy, you shoulda squished him when you had the--urp!" The emcee was staring at an angry Auron, who had him by the collar. [color=darkblue]"Change. Him. Back."[/color] The emcee grumbled something darkly and handed Auron a Maiden's Kiss. "Now go finish that fight. And don't come crying to me when he beats you up without a thought for your kindness." [color=darkblue]"That is incorrect on numerous levels. I hope the brains in management fire you soon for your lack of honor."[/color] The emcee glared after him. Back in the arena, Auron administered the potion to Cloud, returning the blonde back to his normal state. [color=darkblue]"That was interesting when you tried to fight when you were a frog. Stupid, gutsy, but interesting."[/color] [color=blue]"Shoulda let me fight you like that."[/color] [color=darkblue]"Wouldn't have been fair. Now, shall we finish this?"[/color] "YES WE WILL!" the emcee's roar rang out over the intercom. "YOU, SIR, HAVE GRATED ON MY LAST NERVES, SO I HOPE YOU REGRET THAT AS YOU SUFFER YOUR FINAL DEATH!" [color=blue]"We're not allowed to die in here--"[/color] Cloud's words were drowned out by gutteral noises. From the first gate came an Unknown. The second had the Unknown Two, the third, Unknown Three. Water was seeping in from each gate. Shelia looked alarmed. "What are you doing?!?" "The extreme test," the emcee growled. "You CAN'T!" With that, Shelia ran out of the room to get security. She only hoped she would be in time. Below, the Unknowns attacked.

Went crazy on the airbrushing, you did. Heh, the white was a problem. Other than that, your nifty style still stands. 9/1o.

[b]A:[/b]"One Winged Angel" theme. [i]Deity[/i], how I love that song! [b]Q:[/b]OK, cool, so what are the lyrics, what language(s) are they in, and what is the translation of the lyrics?

OoC: *snorts* My gosh, people, too amusing! ~~~~~ Auron shot a look to the gate near him, tensing his sword. A Touch Me Frog came out. Auron stared in disbelief at the tiny thing. Cloud was watching the opposite gate, and snorted, letting his sword hang loose. Another Touch Me Frog bounced out. [color=blue]"Too easy. Just stand back and let me take care of these monsters, too."[/color] [color=darkblue]"I'll have you know--"[/color] A bellow that would have wrenched lesser men's hearts apart tore into the air. The third gate was barely big enough for the Red Dragon as it tore into the arena. [color=blue]"As Barrett would say, oh [i]#&@*![/i]"[/color] The serpent head swiveled on the long neck and the dragon spread its wings to their full extent. Or tried to. Both men ducked down beneath the fine leathery wings as they swept past and hit both walls, trapping the Frogs. [color=darkblue]"That's two less to worry about for the moment."[/color] The dragon lunged at Cloud and tore into his shoulder. Or would have, had it not been for his shoulder guard. Teeth raked against metal and the dragon pulled back. It tried to turn to slap its tail against the offender, but its spread wings thwarted this, and the unexpectedly ignorant creature could not fold them. Auron attempted to rush the dragon and slash at the underbelly, but a foreleg knocked him back. The blade did inflict a wound, and the dragon roared in pain as it shook dark green blood from its foreleg. Becoming irritated, it pulled its head back, inhaling deeply. [color=blue]"Oh #&@*!"[/color] [color=darkblue]"Yes."[/color] The crimson head belched out the fires of Hell directly at the pair. But both were intelligent fighters. Natural instinct told them to move away from the flames, and experience told them to move toward the unprotected underbelly again. Which they both did. The dragon turned to watch them, afraid to flame for hitting itself, and rose a foreleg again. Cloud and Auron both swung their sword to their left (hitting the forelegs), then arched the swing into a turned half circle that impaled both points into the monster. The dragon reared up, pulling the swords with it, screamed in mortal pain, then collapsed and died. The swords clattered to the floor in the empty room. [color=darkblue]"Well, that was fun."[/color] Cloud merely hmphed in agreement, and Auron laughed. Ribit. [color=blue]"You're kidding, right?"[/color] Now that the Touch Me Frogs were released again, they bounced toward the two. Both men snatched up their swords and leapt at the amphibians. Auron easily cleaved his in two, but not before the frog had slapped him with its tongue. As it disappeared, Auron twinged. The sword clattered to the floor again, and the echo sounded louder than he would have expected. Then the world was dark. More than a little mystified, he reached around, and found himself in a pile of rough, flexible material. He climbed up the pile and his head soon popped out. That's when he realized how his sticky palms had helped him scale so quickly. He looked at them. And stared in disbelief. He was a Frog. Sitting on top of his own clothes. [color=darkblue]"Cloud!"[/color] There was no way in Hades he was losing under these circumstances. [color=darkblue]"CLOUD!"[/color] An answering ribbit came from the floor and Auron peered down. Another frog, with a yellowish green tint, was staring at him. [color=darkblue]"Well, looks like that won't be a problem."[/color]

[i]Thank you.[/i] James got my whole point across (which one? The, um, one I was getting to. ^^).

*clicks it* Eh, Meh? Nuttin' happen'd. Heh, too weird that both are born on the same day. Further proof of Siamese twins seperated at birth. ^___________^ EDIT AH--IT TALKS! *Skully*