Pugad Baboy 21

When I went to Glorietta today (technically yesterday, it was just 7 hours ago) to meet with my friends, I came earlier than expected so I wandered a bit inside the National Bookstore. When I passed a counter, I saw a guy buying 2 books: a Polgas Comics 2 and a red book with Dobermaxx on it. I immediately looked around for the comicbook shelf and saw this:

It's the 21st Pugad Baboy! It was just a week ago when I blogged about completing the series and now the latest one is here! Happiness! Wahaha! I just had to buy it.

I haven't actually read it yet, I just opened it right now and scanned it. By looking at the cover, it seems like it's going to have a major story arc, the last one being "Benigno Ramos: Bounty Hunter" on the Sunday Comics, but looking at the table of contents, I don't think there is one. The last major story arc on the main series would be "Aso" way back on Kinse. I hope Pol Medina Jr. would make more of those but really, every new addition to the series is good enough.

Edit: I stand corrected. There is a major story arc! Bodyguard, which features a returning character from a previous story arc.

Finally Finished Final Fantasy VII

Now I can finally say that I have completed the first nine Final Fantasies. We never had a PS2 so I never had the chance to play the others that followed.

I was first introduced to the Final Fantasy series by a High School friend in 2000. He brought a copy of Final Fantasy IX when I invited him to my house. Since then, I've played VIII then VII on the Playstation, then VI on the Gameboy Advance, then III and IV on the Nintendo DS, and finally I&II and V on the GBA. I managed to finish all of them, except for VII; though I did watch my cousin, Joshua, play through the whole game.

Anyway, after 12 years since it was released, I finally finished VII. There are a number of reasons why I didn't finish it the first time:

• My impression of the overall game system (the Materia System) is as bad as VIII's (Junction System).
• Joshua was playing it faster and better than me that I already knew what would happen if I continue my save file.
• I didn't got hooked by the characters and storyline immediately.
  
• It was very, very, very overrated, which made me hate it since I am an FFIX fanboy. Hehe.
  

After finishing it, I realized that it was in fact a really great game. The Materia System is way better than the stupid system in VIII. I liked the storyline. I actually forgot a lot of moments in the game that I was eager to play it to know what happens next. I liked RED XIII's subplot, I finally appreciated Cait Sith because of Reeve, and I absolutely loved Aeris's part in the story (I've always seen her as just the girl who died). But I still think it's overrated. Cloud and Sephiroth are SO NOT the best FF hero/villain/character ever. It's still a great game though, I'd put it third just below VI and IX as my favorite FF.

Dissidia Final Fantasy is coming this August. It is a fighting game consisting of the main protagonists and main antagonists of the first ten Final Fantasies, and a couple of characters further up the series. That's my main reason why I needed to complete the game myself, and the only reason why I'm going to buy a PSP soon. I've always been a Nintendo handheld gamer, until Dissidia was created.