One of the books that I’m particularly glad to have acquired several months ago is titled ‘The Atlas of Legendary Places’ by Jennifer Westwood and James Harpur. It was published in 1989, and I bought it at a used books store (Book Lovers in North Vancouver). It’s rare for me to shop for new books because new books, or simply books that got published since the 21st century began, are very often poorly written and illustrated. The quality of books, like the quality of almost everything else in the West, began to seriously get worse after the 20th century came to an end. I do, however, go to Indigo Books and Music at times and look at what’s available. One of the new books that I bought several months ago is titled ‘An Illustrated History of 151 Video Games: A Detailed Guide to the Most Important Games’ by Simon Parkin. According to the author, it’s “a chronological history describing important games, but it’s also a celebration of 151 games, holding up each example as a wonderful marriage of art, design and coding waiting to be played, enjoyed and experienced again.” Like other modern books, it’s not really that well written. It even contains some grammar errors. But I like how the book is structured, I like the author’s choices, and I like that it features plenty of information and pictures. It’s one of my favorite books in my collection. The book doesn’t only include information about the 151 chosen games. It also includes information about video game consoles and it goes over the history of video games. One book that I bought recently is titled ‘The Ultimate Playstation Games Collection: The 100 Greatest Games from Alien Isolation to Yakuzo’ by Dan Peel. This book’s intro page mentions that “Sony’s PlayStation revolutionised the videogame industry. It wasn’t the first home console, but it brought gaming to the masses in a way few other systems at the time managed to do. Now, more than 25 years after its initial release there are over 10,000 games spanning Sony’s home and handheld consoles, and PlayStation leads the way in console exclusives. With so many experiences and genres to choose from, it can be daunting. But fear not! We’ve compiled 100 unmissable titles that no PlayStation fan’s library should be without.” I think that this new book is now my favorite book about video games. In addition to the list of 100 games, the book features articles from Retro Gamer, EDGE, and GamesRadar. Retro Gamer, in particular, is a magazine that I read frequently. Anyway, when it comes to ‘The Atlas of Legendary Places’, the book features a list of, and information about, some legendary and inspiring places around the world. I had been to two of the places on the list, which are the Alhambra in Spain and the Nile in Egypt. The Red Square, for example, is another one of the places that I had been to, but it’s not mentioned in the book. The main reason why I bought this book is because it features beautiful photographs and illustrations. Since this book was published in the 20th century, the writing is excellent and often inspired. Reading about the Alhambra in this book not only reminded me of the time when I had seen this palace and walked through it. It also reminded me of the time when I read ‘One Thousand and One Nights’ more than a decade ago. This work is one of the most memorable and enjoyable classics that I’ve read. Having read it, I understand why it’s such a popular book. Let’s not forget that it influenced classics like Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade and Alexander Korda’s The Thief of Bagdad (1940). While I’m on this subject, I can mention that I recently came across some quotes that I like by Averroes (Ibn Rushd), whose works are yet another great product of the Islamic Golden Age. Averroes didn’t live in the Abbasid Caliphate, but he still had some interesting things to say. One quote of his is, “Ignorance leads to fear, fear leads to hate, and hate leads to violence. This is the equation.” Anyway, the first chapter of ‘The Atlas of Legendary Places’, which is about the Eternal Realms, opens with the following introduction. “According to the Book of Genesis, God created the Garden of Eden, a lush idyllic place where plants and fruit-bearing trees abounded and the first man and woman lived in harmony with animals and birds. Such visions of an earthly paradise, places of wonder and delight, can be found in the myths of other cultures. The Greek philosopher Plato was the first to describe the island of Atlantis, where the inhabitants enjoyed a Golden Age existence of luxury and ease. In the same tradition is Avalon, an island of myth and magic, where enchantresses healed the wounds of those who came to them.” Another book that I bought at the same time and in the same store is titled ‘Art of the Western World: From Ancient Greece to Post Modernism’ by Bruce Cole and Adelheid Gealt. It was published in 1989 too, and it’s in good condition. In addition to featuring many beautiful photographs, the book is organized well. Before I bought it, I already had several very good books about art. A few of them are gifts from my mother. I will probably review them in future posts. Well, my mother doesn’t only gift me with books from time to time. She also provides me with health advice from time to time because she reads a lot about how to avoid health problems. For example, for about a year already, she has been telling me that eating burned food and consuming liquids that are kept in plastic bottles or plastic containers can cause cancer. So, it’s best to avoid drinking liquids out of plastic bottles, heating food in plastic containers, and keeping liquids in plastic containers because chemicals from plastics end up in food and liquids and then in the body if consumed. Moreover, cancer becomes more of a threat to people when they reach their mid-thirties. Anyway, when I was a student in elementary school and in high school, I took art classes. Therefore, I have an interest in art. There are some things that I’ve noticed about Western art after reading about it and looking at it. Western art has some characteristics that the arts of some other cultures don’t have. For example, there are differences between Western art and Russian art. Western art very often features female nudity and depictions of horror or death. These characteristics are present not only in Western art but also in Western cinema. But cinema can be regarded as an art form, I suppose. These characteristics are not present in Russian art, for example. Russian literature too is different from Western literature in some ways. Western books and comics very often feature incredible individuals and heroes. For example, Arthur Conan Doyle wrote novels about an incredible detective (Sherlock Holmes). Ian Fleming wrote novels about an incredible secret service agent (James Bond). Stan Lee wrote comic books about incredible heroes (superheroes like Spider-Man and Iron Man). Russian literature, on the other hand, rarely features incredible individuals and heroes.

Two games that I recently finished playing are Final Fantasy X (2001) and God of War (2018). Playing and completing Final Fantasy X this time was my second time doing this. I guess that I don’t really need to shower this game with praise because it’s one of the best-selling video games ever and it’s acknowledged as one of the best video games ever. After playing games like Dark Souls and Dark Souls II not that long ago, playing Final Fantasy X was a breeze and a piece of cake for me. Grinding for experience in Dark Souls is a tedious, lengthy, and sometimes challenging process. But, in Final Fantasy X, on the few occasions when I decided to grind for experience in order to have an easier time in battles, I spent at most only about an hour on doing this. Perhaps the biggest thing that makes Final Fantasy X a joy to play is its intriguing story. Yoshinori Kitase’s direction was clearly very good. In addition, there’s a memorable cast of characters, beautiful graphics and designs, a fitting and memorable music score by Nobuo Uematsu, and, of course, there’s voice acting, which isn’t as bad as some people say it is. I’d say that the voice acting in this game is mostly decent. By the way, the cover for the PS2 release of this game is one of the best video game covers in existence. So, playing Final Fantasy X again, almost a decade after I played it for the first time, was a soothing experience. God of War was also a breeze to play after playing Dark Souls. I was surprised by how quickly I was able to finish playing it. I think that it took me 20 to 30 hours to complete God of War, and I tried to complete every side mission that became available (I even defeated the valkyries). God of War is the first PS4 game that I’ve completed so far. Playing this game is a lot like playing Resident Evil 4 because it too has an over-the-shoulder camera. Well, I did play it on the easiest difficulty setting because I play video games mostly for the story and not for the challenge. God of War has already been acknowledged as a modern video game classic. So, I don’t need to spend time on praising it. The graphics are obviously superb. The music score is effective, just like the music in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, though not particularly memorable. I would have preferred to play God of War on my laptop instead of on my PlayStation 4, which actually emits a considerable amount of heat when it’s turned on, but my laptop isn’t powerful enough to run a game like God of War smoothly. As impressive as God of War is, I don’t find it to be quite as memorable as the first two God of War games for the PlayStation 2. I haven’t yet played God of War III. God of War is also not quite as memorable for me as Dead Space, which too has an over-the-shoulder free camera. I like the Dead Space trilogy a lot. I had an excellent time playing the Dead Space games on my laptop in the second half of 2021. I like these games as much as, or even more than, the first three Resident Evil games for the PS1. I played the Resident Evil games at the beginning of 2021 on one of my PSP handhelds, having bought them before the PlayStation Store on the PS3 was shut down. When the Resident Evil games were released in the 1990s, they were sort of considered to be blockbuster games. Well, now they can even be played on something like a smartphone or on an inexpensive handheld. The music scores for the Resident Evil games are fantastic, and I have them in my music collection. Resident Evil 2 is probably the most memorable one out of these games because it’s longer, more polished, and more ambitious than the first game. Both Resident Evil and Resident Evil 2 have a haunting atmosphere, but almost every aspect of these games can be praised. Well, in Resident Evil 2, there’s even a boss battle against a giant crocodile in a sewer. As for the films that I’ve seen lately, I can easily recommend X (1996). This film is one of a number of films that I own that had been distributed by Manga Entertainment in North America. The others include Angel Cop (1989), Appleseed (1988), Black Jack: The Movie (1996), Black Magic (1987), Bounty Dog (1994), Dangaioh (1987), Ankoku Shinwa (1990), Devilman (1987), Fist of the North Star (1986), The Guyver: Bio-Booster Armor (1989), Junk Boy (1987), Landlock (1996), Super Dimensional Fortress Macross II: Lovers Again (1992), Mad Bull 34 (1990), New Dominion Tank Police (1993), Orguss 02 (1993), Psychic Wars (1991), Rayearth (1997), Red Hawk: Weapon of Death (1995), Shadow Skill (1995), Street Fighter Alpha: The Animation (2000), Sword for Truth (1990), Tokyo Revelation (1995), Vampire Wars (1991), Violence Jack (1986), Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honneamise (1987), and Ghost Sweeper Mikami (1994). When I acquired some of these releases after graduating from high school, I enjoyed watching them but I didn’t realize their value at that time. Now, some years later, I realize that the anime from the 1980s to the early-2000s should be cherished because it’s so much better and more original than the anime that began to be made in the mid-2000s. I have already gone over this observation of mine in an earlier post. If I take a film like X as an example, I can point out that its impressive hand-drawn animation alone makes it worth seeing and cherishing. It also makes modern anime look bland and amateurish in comparison. The film’s director, Rintaro, directed another film that I like a lot too, which is Metropolis (2001). The other films that I enjoyed watching very much this year are The Bodyguard (1992), A Damsel in Distress (1937), The Thing (1982), Firestarter (1984), The Transformers: The Movie (1986), Backfire (1988), Flashdance (1983), My Bodyguard (1980), Hellbound: Hellraiser II (1988), The General’s Daughter (1999), 10 Rillington Place (1971), Absence of Malice (1981), Sudden Impact (1983), The Phantom (1996), Tom Horn (1980), Sisters (1972), 2010: The Year We Make Contact (1984), Creepshow (1982), In This Our Life (1942), Blink (1993), Heaven Help Us (1985), Black Bart (1948), Ordinary People (1980), Under Siege (1992), Tombstone (1993), Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982), and The Road to Wellville (1994). As I’ve already pointed out in an earlier post, seeing almost any film from the 20th century is a pleasure for me. Modern films are bland and amateurish in comparison. However, not every theater-going experience was bad or forgettable for me this year. I was impressed by Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, for example. I’m not some Marvel fanboy. In fact, I don’t like to be a fan of anything. Therefore, I was honest when I reviewed Taika Waititi’s sloppy, even disastrous, Thor: Love and Thunder. But Wakanda Forever is another success for Marvel Studios. Seeing this film was the best experience that I had in a theater in a long time. When the film came to an end, I thought that it’s now my favorite film from Phase Four of the MCU. But, after thinking some more about this, I decided that Spider-Man: No Way Home and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness are on par with Wakanda Forever. Some people have claimed that Kevin Feige has been giving directors more creative freedom since Phase Four began. If this is indeed the case, I understand why the output of Phase Four was uneven when it comes to quality. Wakanda Forever has director Ryan Coogler’s style all over it. First of all, there aren’t many action scenes in the film because it seems to me that Coogler prefers to focus on character development. This doesn’t become a problem in the film because the performances of the actors (especially of Letitia Wright, Winston Duke, Angela Bassett, Michael B. Jordan, and Tenoch Huerta) are good, the cinematography is good (for a modern film), the direction is good, and the music is good. Therefore, the scenes of people talking aren’t a snoozefest here. I cared about Shuri’s struggle more than I cared about T’Challa’s struggle in Black Panther (2018). It seems that Shuri intentionally puts on a suit that looks similar to N’Jadaka’s suit from Black Panther because she wants to get revenge. I do like the first Black Panther film, which contains more action scenes, but I like Wakanda Forever more because it’s directed better and because it’s more polished. Perhaps the reasons why this is the case are because the film has a bigger budget ($250 million) and because production and filming took longer. Or the reason could have been because Feige was more involved in making Wakanda Forever as good as possible. I think that the filmmakers and the actors wanted to make a fitting tribute to Chadwick Boseman, who died in 2020, but they also didn’t want the film to be a waterworks show. The country of Wakanda is a more believable place in Wakanda Forever than in Black Panther. Since Wakanda Forever is a Marvel Studios film, it might gross more than $1 billion by the end of its theatrical run. Its popularity also means that it has already gotten plenty of hate from the haters that hate its “woke” content and plenty of praise from the lovers that love the MCU. I’m neither a hater nor a lover of the MCU. I simply like it because it’s a good film and because it’s another fantastic addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

HUNDREDS of ice hockey fans went on the rampage in Canada after their team lost a showpiece final.

Vancouver Canucks supporters rioted after their side lost the prestigious Stanley Cup 4-0 at home to the Boston Bruins.

The mob torched cars and rubbish bins, overturned vehicles, smashed windows and showered giant TV screens with beer bottles.

Mayor Gregor Robertson said: “We have a small number of hooligans on the streets of Vancouver causing problems. It’s absolutely disgraceful and shameful and by no means represents the city of Vancouver. We have had an extraordinary run in the play-off, great celebration. What’s happened tonight is despicable.”

A store filled with smoke as thugs covered their faces with bandanas to continue the violence.

Canucks captain Henrik Sedin said: “It’s terrible. This city and province has a lot to be proud of, the team we have and the guys we have in here. It’s too bad.”

Riot cops used tear gas and drew truncheons as they battled to quell the trouble.

Police cars were also set alight and several people were treated for stab wounds.

God of War reinvents the franchise with deep combat and rewarding exploration.

An obsessed Game of Thrones fan has put on 10lbs of pure muscle to transform himself into a hulking star of the show.

Rene Koiter, 29, spent ten months training to perfectly resemble the imposing character Khal Drogo, leader of the Dothraki.

Mr Koiter even employed a team of eight staff to help him with his professional transformation, so that he could look just like Khal – married to character Daenerys Targaryen.

When he first debuted his muscly new look at a staff party, the subsequent video went viral amassing over a quarter million hits on YouTube. 

Since his makeover to the character – played by Jason Momoa – the graphic designer has gained a legion of female fans and has been bombarded with marriage proposals from women online.

Mr Koiter, from Lake Forest, California said: ‘Honestly, I had no idea what the reaction would be towards my transformation.

‘Many marriage proposals have been flung at me.

‘My joking response to these women is usually “Can you eat a horse heart like Daenerys famously does in the TV series?”

‘Imagine my surprise when they come back to me, saying they would eat two hearts for me.

‘It’s flattering of course but I worry that people are mixing up the fantasy from the reality.

‘Nevertheless, I do enjoy that the public are entertained because of this.’

Mr Koiter – who is already fluent in five languages – also learnt Dothraki, Khal Drogo’s fictional dialect in the series for a complete makeover.

In order to beef up for his transformation, Mr Koiter attended a boot camp class three times a week, and worked out at a gym during his lunch breaks and took long walks on his days off.

He also took afternoon bike rides in the Californian sunshine to perfect his Khal Drogo tan.

His rigorous training regime means he is now able to flip an 850lbs tyre, equivalent in weight to the average horse.

Mr Koiter also completely changed his diet.

He said: ‘I used to be a big cereal junkie – I would eat that for breakfast, lunch and dessert. But no more.

‘I had to quit all sugars and simple carbs to achieve this look. Now I eat things like veggies, fruits, eggs, oatmeal, chicken, lean beef, fish and protein shakes.’

Rene enlisted the skills of a costume designer, make-up artist, hair stylist to create Khal Drogo’s look.

He said: ‘Drogo was indeed a juggernaut of a character to bring to life. The whole process took almost ten months and what I’ll say is that you really need a team of people to build him properly.

‘I spent months growing out my hair for extensions, pumping iron like a mad man and then mimicking his Dothraki speech and mannerisms.’

For his next project, Rene is considering transforming into another Game of Thrones’ character, Jon Snow played by Kit Harington in the series.

The new series of Game of Thrones airs on 6 April 2014 and a 15-minute trailer for series 4 came out last night.

Today, in Alaska, there is much debate over building a bridge over Knik Arm from Anchorage to the largely undeveloped Point MacKenzie. This infamous “Bridge to Nowhere” has garnered national attention for being an example of government waste. Today, there is very little around Point MacKenzie. Supporters of the bridge say that this will change with a bridge, which will allow development that will pay for itself. While the ultimate outcome of the Knik Bridge argument is uncertain, it is interesting to note an idea that sprung from Alaska’s early oil days 4 decades ago in the same spot. This was Seward’s Success.

Seward’s Success was the ultimate futurist idea. A city of 40,000 located at Point MacKenzie in a glass, climate controlled structure. Touted as the world’s first enclosed city, it was a dream thought up during the rush of money expected from the discovery of oil in Prudhoe Bay in 1968. The idea was developed by Tandy Industries of Tulsa, with designers from Los Angeles. Seward’s Success would feature offices, shops and restaurants, an indoor sports arena, and housing units. The temperature would be kept at 68 degrees all year round, with natural gas providing the power supply. 

Transportation between Seward’s Success and Anchorage would initially be a high speed tramway across Knik Arm. Eventually, a monorail would connect the two cities and provide transportation within Seward’s Success (cars were not to be allowed in the city). Within the city, moving sidewalks would allow residents to move around the city.

So why is there no futuristic city at Point MacKenzie. Ultimately, the idea was short lived. In the early 1970s, the building of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline was held up in court. With the expected onrush of people and dollars held up, the subcontractor could not make the payment on the lease. And the dream of a glass city across from Anchorage fell away. In all likelihood, the city would have been a failure. Alaskans (or anyone else) would probably not go for living in what would basically be a gigantic shopping mall. Seward’s Success stands out as a social experiment that would have likely failed. Still, it is fun to sit look northwest from downtown Anchorage across the two mile strait and wonder.

Many an architect has dreamed up visionary plans for city centers, but few have actually seen their designs come to fruition in a real live urban setting. And while many such unbuilt concepts are technically viable, others are wacky, fanciful or downright bizarre. These 13 vintage urban design ideas for the future, from perfectly symmetrical egalitarian communities to the egotistical demands of a deranged dictator, will probably never become reality – and in many cases, we’re better off that way.

Gillette’s Metropolis

Before his name was inextricably connected to safety razors, King Camp Gillette had a utopian vision for the future which revolved around a waterfall-powered tiered city he dubbed ‘Metropolis’. All residents of this imagined city would have access to the same amenities including rooftop gardens in the perfectly round, precisely divided multi-functional buildings in which they would live, work, play and eat. Like many of Gillette’s ideas, the design never went anywhere, but it’s notably similar to many very modern 21st-century concepts for sustainable urban centers.

Broadacre City

Like Gillette’s Metropolis, Broadacre City was meant to be an urban utopia. But when renowned architect Frank Lloyd Wright imagined the picture-perfect society of tomorrow, he saw not highly compact and efficient high-rises, but sprawling self-sustainable homesteads. Originally conceived in 1932, Broadacre City puts each homeowner in a self-built single-family home on an entire acre of land brimming with gardens. Complete with multiple cars per family, it would almost be an accurate prediction of future suburbia if not for the airplane in every front yard.

Atomurbia

If giving each and every family in America an acre of land seems impossible, imagine what life would be like if ‘Atomurbia’ had come to pass. This concept, published in a 1947 issue of Life magazine, detailed how to atomic bomb-proof America by spreading the population across the land in a geometric grid and relocating all industry into underground structures so that any single bomb would do a minimum of damage. The whole plan would have cost a measly 5 trillion dollars in today’s currency, and the authors – atomic scientists from Chicago – thought it could be pulled off within a decade.

Hotel Attraction

Antoni Gaudi’s architecture defines Barcelona, Spain even today with its fluid curves, reflective surfaces and organic shapes – but it would stick out like a sore thumb in the comparatively staid cityscape of Manhattan. Perhaps that’s what he had in mind for ‘Hotel Attraction’, commissioned in 1908 and also known as the Grand Hotel. The rounded, spaceship-like form would have risen in the exact spot where the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center were later built, but the idea was ultimately abandoned. Gaudi’s unrealized design was actually considered as a possibility for the Ground Zero memorial after the attacks of September 11th, 2001.

Welthauptstadt

We all know that Adolf Hitler had many an ambitious plan that (thankfully) never came to pass – but few are aware of ‘Welthauptstadt’ (German for ‘World Capital’), the Fuhrer’s design for a new Berlin to be constructed after his expected victory in World War II. Taking elements from other empires around the world, Hitler imagined a broad ‘Avenue of Victory’ down the center as well as his very own ‘Arch of Triumph’. A test structure constructed in 1938 to determine whether Berlin’s marshy ground could have even held up such heavy Romanesque architecture (verdict: nope) still stands today.

Palace of Soviets

The Palace of Soviets would have been the world’s tallest structure at 100 meters high and crowned with a brightly lit hammer and sickle as a monument to Lenin on the site of the demolished Cathedral of Christ the Savior, if only the Nazis hadn’t invaded in 1941, putting a stop to construction. Its steel frame was disassembled for use in fortifications and bridges, and its foundations served as the world’s largest open-air swimming pool for a while before 1995 when the whole thing was filled in so that the cathedral could be rebuilt.

Ville Contemporaine

The architect known as Le Corbusier was an essential figure in the development of what we now know as modern architecture, and his many theoretical urban design projects aimed to make life better for residents of cramped cities. Displeased with the chaos of big cities, Le Corbusier designed ‘Ville Contemporaine’ as an orderly home to three million people where housing, industry and recreation all occupied distinct areas connected by roads that emphasized the use of personal vehicles for transportation.

Seward’s Success

If it was Seward’s Folly to purchase Alaska from the Russian Empire in the first place, perhaps Seward’s Success – a huge climate-controlled, glass-enclosed city for 40,000 people – could have made up for it. Or not. Proposed in 1968 and nixed in 1972, this unbuilt community was dreamed up after the discovery of oil reserves at Prudhoe Bay, Alaska when developers imagined droves of people coming to the area. The crowning jewel of the perpetually 68-degree dome would have been a 20-story Alaskan Petroleum Center, surrounded by housing, offices, retail space and an indoor sports arena.

Triton City

If not for a certain tell-tale 1960s aesthetic, Buckminster Fuller’s ‘Triton City’ could easily fit among today’s designs for floating eco-friendly cities. The futurist, architect and inventor was ahead of his time as usual when he imagined this tetrahedronal metropolis for Tokyo Bay, a seastead for up to 6,000 residents. Fuller wrote about the possibility of desalinating and recirculating seawater “in many useful and non-polluting ways” and using materials from obsolete buildings on land, which were hardly popular ideas at the time.

Future New York, “The City of Skyscrapers”

By 1925, many of New York City’s skyscrapers were already present, but futurists of the time envisioned not only a great deal more but a sort of aerial civilization complete with elevated train platforms and perhaps a rather unsafe number of aircraft flying around all at once.

New York City’s Dream Airport

All the airplanes in that 1925 postcard would definitely require a monumental airport in New York City, and what better location than right smack in midtown Manhattan? This concept for “New York City’s Dream Airport” featured an astonishingly large – and some say ugly – runway platform. But for all of the prime real estate that this monstrosity would have devoured, it seems as if it could only handle a handful of planes at a time with absolutely zero margin of error, sending errant planes straight into Central Park or the East River.

Slumless, Smokeless Cities

How do you build a city so egalitarian that slums are eliminated entirely, and nobody ever has to breathe in pollution? Sir Ebenezer Howard, the father of the garden city movement, believed that a careful layout with six satellite garden cities connected via canals to a densely populated central city would do the trick. Thoughtfully, the design included specially designated spaces for “Eplileptic Farms”, “Homes for Waifs”, “Homes for Inebriates” and an insane asylum.

Boozetown

“Just imagine a resort entirely centered on the culture of alcohol. A boozer’s paradise built expressly to facilitate drinking and the good times that naturally follow. Where the bars, clubs and liquor stores never close.” Mel Johnson’s ‘Boozetown’ was an entirely sincere proposal with street names like “Gin Lane” and “Bourbon Boulevard” that would have begun as a resort town in Middle America and eventually expanded into a full-sized adults-only city with permanent housing and its own suburbs. After many obsessed years of struggling for financing, Johnson gave up on his dream in 1960 and died in a mental hospital in 1962.

Final Fantasy X is one of the most popular games in the series to date, and many fans would say that it’s the greatest Final Fantasy ever released. It was the first Final Fantasy for the PS2, having a huge graphical upgrade, and being the first in the series to feature voice acting for the major characters. In it, players take control of Tidus, who suddenly gets pulled from his home in Zanarkand and taken to an unknown land. He joins a Summoner named Yuna on her Pilgrimage to save the world from Sin, while also trying to find a way back home. With its amazing story, strategic turn-based combat, and highly customizable Sphere Grid system, Final Fantasy X is a great entry in the series for both old and new fans.

Final Fantasy X-2 is the first direct sequel in the series and made a lot of big changes from the original game. The story takes place two years after the events of FFX and follows Yuna as she begins a new journey. The tonal shift may be off putting to some, but the game expands on the world of Spira, and allows you the freedom to explore it as much as you’d like. The combat for X-2 is much more fast paced compared to its predecessor, featuring an ATB (Active Time Battle) system, and the Dressphere system, allowing characters in your party to change their roles mid battle. While not as highly regard as FFX, its sequel is a fun game that’s worth playing, and its multiple endings and New Game+ even encourage multiple playthroughs.

The Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster bundles both of these games into one package and adds many new features to the game to give even veterans a fresh experience.

Graphical and Music Upgrades

Probably the most obvious improvement from this remaster is the graphical upgrade. Since this isn’t a full remake, the PS2 models are still used, but everything is retextured and smoothed out, adding much more detail to the environment, and making all of the character models look much better. Major characters are also remodeled, but the only thing that suffers from this are the faces. Some of the faces feel off compared to the original, and their eyes look less expressive, especially when the camera zooms in on them.

The music for Final Fantasy X has been given a complete overhaul. Just about every song in the game has a new arrangement to it, giving a new feel to areas and cutscenes. If you prefer the original versions of the music, you can easily toggle between the original and new soundtracks within FFX’s menu.

Added Content

The most exciting thing about the remaster is that we get the International versions of both X and X-2. These versions were Japan exclusive re-releases for the PS2, where many features, bosses and even story content were added.

FFX adds the Expert Sphere Grid. This is a complete reconfiguration of the Sphere Grid, where all of the characters start near the middle, and their paths are a lot more intertwined. This makes it a lot easier to build your characters off of their standard path (for example, Yuna can learn Black Magic spells much earlier in the game). Many new superbosses were also added, now giving you the option to fight Dark Aeons and Penance.

FFX-2 adds new Dresspheres (Festivalist and Psychic), and a Creature Creator system, which allows you to capture enemies and recruit them as your party members, along with a Monster Arena. Also added is the Last Mission, which is a new side story set three months after the events of X-2, featuring all new gameplay.

We even get some extra story content with Eternal Calm, a short movie set one year after the events of FFX, and Final Fantasy X -Will-, a 30-minute audio drama set after the events of FFX-2. PC players also get some optional boosts for both games. The main draw here is 2x/4x speed, which is really helpful when wanting to grind levels or farm materials. Other boosts include Supercharge and the ability to grant all items and abilities if you want to have a more casual playthrough.

For some reason, the remaster did not add the ability to skip cutscenes in either game. This can be frustrating if you get stuck in a boss fight because you will have to watch a potentially long cutscene before every attempt at the fight.

Replayability

With all of the added features, there is a ton of replay value in both X and X-2. For FFX, you can do another playthrough using the Expert Sphere Grid, or you can build the perfect party in order to take on the Dark Aeons and Penance. X-2 already had a lot of replay value for players who wanted to see all of the endings and try the countless party configurations using different Dresspheres. Now with the Creature Creator and Monster Arena, you can spend hours trying to build the perfect team and take on the new superbosses, or try to catch every monster and watch their story. Between both games, you can easily spend hundreds of hours in the world of Spira.

Verdict

Final Fantasy X is an amazing and highly influential game, while Final Fantasy X-2 is a really fun experience for those that don’t mind a huge change. With both titles being bundled together, having a great graphical upgrade, and having all of the International content included, I would highly recommend picking this up if you’re a fan of RPGs. Even if you played these before, there are plenty of new things to discover in the remaster, and if you’re looking to get into Final Fantasy for the first time, FFX is one of the best games to get you into the series.