30 Day Video Game Challenge Quick Fire Round 2

30 Day Video Game Challenge Day 19: Picture of a Game Setting You Wish You Lived In

Sei-an City (Okami) - one of my all-time favorite videogame settings. The city was alive and filled with great, colorful characters. Minus the demons, I'd love to live in Sei-an City, as it looks like it would be a pleasant place to live.

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  30 Day Video Game Challenge Day 20: Favorite Genre Fighting Games - I love a lot of genres, but fighting games are my favorite. The reason being that fighting games are the one genre that provides immediate satisfaction of gameplay. With other genres, there is always work to be had in order to get satisfaction out of it, especially RPGs, but with fighting games I just jump right into the fight and given all of the mechanics I'll ever have; there is no work, just pure satisfaction.

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30 Day Video Game Challenge Day 21: Game With the Best Story 

Odin Sphere - a beautiful, sophisticated, well-written, Shakespearean epic. Except for Vanillaware's other incredible story, Grimgrimoire, no other video game story has gripped me and captured my imagination like Odin Sphere. The cutscenes were beautiful, the characters are amazing and multi-faceted, the music is beautiful and epic, and the composition and execution of the story is incredible. There are many great video game stories, but none have impressed me as much as Odin Sphere.

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30 Day Video Game Challenge Day 22: A Game Sequel Which Disappointed You 

Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm 3 - I love Naruto Storm 2. It provided a videogame experience that was built upon visuals, music, and simple gameplay; and it all worked out superbly. For some reason, CC2 decided to remove a lot of the best elements of Storm 2 in Storm 3, and the result was a game that felt lifeless due to a severe lack of QTEs and boss battles. The end result was an unsatisfying game tat may have been pretty, but was really lacking in soul.

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30 Day Video Game Challenge Day 23: Game You Think Had the Best Graphics/Art Style

Okami HD - Okami wins this award for both graphics and art style, but Okami HD is definitely the bigger winner, because, well, it's HD! Okami ... in HD! No contest.

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30 Day Video Game Challenge Day 24: Favorite Classic Game 

Chrono Trigger - There are many classic games in my back catalog, but very few hold up as well as Chrono Trigger. It's as if the game simple cannot age. The graphics still look great, the music is still phenomenal, the gameplay is still amazing, and the story is still exciting and heart-warming. I don't think I will ever not love Chrono Trigger.

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30 Day Video Game Challenge Day 25: A Game You Plan on Playing 

 Kirby Squeak Squad - one of the few Kirby games I never completed is one that I'm anxious to go back to. I originally thought that Squeak Squad was just another simple Kirby game, but it actually makes a lot of cool advancements to the classic Kirby formula that I'm eager to try out.

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30 Day Video Game Challenge Day 26: Best Voice Acting 

Michelle Ruff as Velvet (Odin Sphere) - While voice acting isn't always the best in videogames, but sometimes you come across performances that are just amazing. Performances where you get lost in the character's voice and the character feels real. All of the voice acting in Odin Sphere is amazing, but Michelle Ruff's performance as Velvet is one of the stand-outs because of the range of emotions she presents throughout the story including rage, fear, embarrassment, and kindness. Runner-ups: Yuri Lowenthal as Advocat (Grimgrimoire), Liam O'Brian as Ingway (Odin Sphere), Reno Wilson as Sazh Katzroy (Final Fantasy XIII)

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30 Day Video Game Challenge Day 27: Most Epic Scene Ever 

 Final Shot against Jerghinga (The Wonderful 101) - This scene has great build-up and is just a fantastic QTE. Play it and love it. Runner-ups: Bayonetta head-butts a freakin' skyscraper (Bayonetta), Naruto's final punch against Tobi (Naruto Storm 3), Final Boss of Metal Slug 3, Final Boss of Dragon's Crown, Final Boss of Odin Sphere. 

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30 Day Video Game Challenge Day 28: Favorite Game Developer

Nintendo - at the present time, I'd say the developer who gets me the most excited with their releases is Vanillaware, but because Vanillaware doesn't have the uge cgame catalog of Nintendo, I went with the Big N. Now, of course, Nintendo has made many of the most incredible games of all time, and hold the most spots in my big all-time favorites list. Though I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a bit disappointed in Nintendo lately, as they appear to be playing it quite safe as of late, which is resulting in some boring titles.

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30 Day Video Game Challenge Day 29: A Game You Thought You Wouldn't Like but Ended Up Loving. 

Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm - I don't like the manga/anime of Naruto, nor did I like the PS2 Naruto Ultimate Ninja games much, but I was increidbly impressed by the amazing graphics and music of Naruto Storm, as well as the unique and solid gameplay. I didn't think a game could really grip me with just graphics and music, but the Naruto Storm games have proven me wrong.

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30 Day Video Game Challenge Day 30: Your Favorite Game of All Time 

Okami - Okami is a game that encompasses everything I love of about videogames, as well as showing me just what videogames are capable of. Incredible art direction, graphics, music, game design, and story. Okami is one of the rare games that is actually incredible in every aspect of game design, all while being charming, inviting, and satisfying. Very few games reach the caliber of Okami; Chrono Trigger is the "Okami" of the past, and Kid Icarus: Uprising is the "Okami" of the present. I hope that there will be many more games of this caliber in the future; hopefully from PlatinumGames.

30 Day Video Game Challenge Quick Fire Round

So, I've fallen behind in these due to life taking up time, so here's a quickfire round where I'll answer 7 of these at once ...

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30 Day Video Game Challenge Day 11: Gaming System of Choice

Whatever Nintendo system is out at the time. I don't get if the question is gaming system of choice at the current time or of all time, so I'll just say that I prefer whatever Nintendo system is out at the time, as I always enjoy Nintendo games the most, as well as the developers they partner with. However, if the question asks what my preferred system of all time is, at the moment, I'd say the Nintendo Wii thanks to its great games and the Virtual Console.

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30 Day Video Game Challenge Day 12: A Game Everyone Should Play

Chrono Trigger. This is a really hard question, as the term "everyone" is so broad and it's hard to pick a game for everyone. But, I decided on Chrono Trigger because it's a very accessible, fun, and high quality game. RPGs are often a very niche taste, as they often take a long time to get into and/or require a lot of tedious grinding and cutscenes for things to get rolling, but CT starts off beautifully and doesn't take long at all to get really interesting. Furthermore, the game is a hallmark of the videogame medium as fun and beautiful experience.

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30 Day Video Game Challenge Day 13: A Game You've Played More than Five Time

Metal Slug 1-5. I love the Metal Slug series, and I will occasionally just pop in my Metal Slug Collection and play several straight-through at once. It's an arcade shooter that never gets old. If you wanted an answer that wasn't an arcade-style game, than that would be Vanquish, which, imo, is the modern spiritual successor to the Metal Slug series, even if it wasn't really meant to be.

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30 Day Video Game Challenge Day 14: Current (or Most Recent) Gaming Wallpaper

New Team Gravity Project.

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30 Day Video Game Challenge Day 15: Post a screenshot from the game you're playing right now

The Wonderful 101 - The amazing Orowchee boss fight!

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30 Day Video Game Challenge Day 16: Game with the Best Cutscenes

Devil May Cry 3. Incredibly cinematic, filled with little details, and passionately directed; the cutscenes of DMC3 are a sight to behold and definitely one of the game's biggest highlights. DMC3's cutscenes set the bar for videogame cinematics for me, and still hold a special place in my memory.

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30 Day Video Game Challenge Day 17: Favorite Antagonist

King Valentine (Odin Sphere). I find it impressive when the antagonist of a fictional story can give me the shivers just from their very presence. In videogames, that antagonist is King Valentine from Odin Sphere. He was but a simple rotting skeleton who still spoke as a king, and yet, thanks to a powerful story and superb voice acting, King Valentine felt like the game's greatest menace, even when up against the towering Odin and the Queen of the Netherworld. A masterful villain.

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30 Day Video Game Challenge Day 18: Favorite Protagonist

Zack Fair (Final Fantasy VII Complilation). I mentioned Zack before so I won't go into too much detail, but I will explain why I favor him over other protagonists. The simply answer is because he's such a nice, happy guy. Despite living in a rough environment, Zack always keeps a sincere smile on his face, not out of stupidity, but because he believes life is beautiful despite the problems he may face. He wants to fight for others and keep his pride while doing it. Zack was a breath of fresh air after dealing with so many conflicted protagonists in other videogames, especially when dealing with urban or steampunk settings. It's nice to see that Zack's spirited smile has lived on in characters like Zidance Tribal (FFIX) and Sora (Kingdom Hearts).

30 Day Video Game Challenge: Day 10 - Best Gameplay

Day 10: Best Gameplay

The Wonderful 101. This question is far too hard to answer with just one game, though, if I had to make the choice, I'd go with The Wonderful 101. Maybe it's because I'm playing the game intently right now, but 101 is really, really impressive in the gameplay department. 101 basically feels like the culmination of all of Hideki Kamiya's previous games' gameplay systems, and as a result, the game feels absolutely filled to the brim with content, creativity, and gameplay diversity. It's that gameplay diversity that really makes me love gameplay systems in games. Donkey Kong Country Returns, Yoshi's Island, Gravity Rush, Okami, Metroid: Other M, Metroid Prime, Dragon's Crown, and many more are other games that have great gameplay diversity and original ideas. Gameplay is the most important aspect of a video game, and it's always been something I really pay attention to and critique, so when a game has gameplay that really impresses me, it often becomes a favorite.

30 Day Video Game Challenge: Day 9 - Saddest Video Game Scene

Day 9: Saddest Video Game Scene

The Death of Zack Fair (Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII). We all saw it coming, we all started Crisis Core knowing exactly how it would end; and yet, Zack's death is the saddest freakin' thing in videogames. The way the player continues to fight throughout his death is very impactful, and the way the roulette gameplay system was implemented into the scene is amazing. There is a lot I forget about Crisis Core, but I will never forget how great the character of Zack Fair was, and how emotional and impactful his death scene was.

30 Day Video Game Challenge: Day 8 - Best Video Game Soundtrack

Day 8: Best Video Game Soundtrack

Chrono Cross. I listen to videogame soundtracks all the time, even to videogames I've never played, so this question comes up a lot, and I always have the same answer: Yasunori Mitsuda's masterpiece: the Chrono Cross soundtrack. To me, no other soundtrack hits the mood, atmosphere, and emotion of its accompanying game as good at Chrono Cross' OST. The focus on Mediterranean instruments and music styles is beautiful to listen to, and the really emotional tracks hit the soul just right. On its own, Chrono Cross' OST is incredible, but accompanying the game, it's an amazing experience.

Runners-up: Okami OST, The World Ends With You OST, Odin Sphere OST, Final Fantasy IX OST.

30 Day Video Game Challenge: Day 7 - Favorite Game Couple

Day 7: Favorite Game Couple

Lillet and Amoretta (Grimgrimoire). This was a very unexpected surprise when playing Grimgrimoire, especially since promotional artwork for the game hinted at the possibility of Lillet/Bartido happening. But instead, we got a well-developed, cute, and obscure pairing in the form of Lillet/Amoretta. Their relationship grew well over the course of the game, and while it could feel a little cheesy at times, it was always sincere and often cute. The pairing also deserves credit for being one of the few lesbian pairings in videogames.

http://www.deviantart.com/art/But-the-paperwork-353725781

30 Day Video Game Challenge: Day 6 - Most Annoying Character

Day 6: Most Annoying Character

Tidus (Final Fantasy X). This was a battle between Tidus or Yuna from FFX, but I went with Tidus. My main problem with Tidus is how he never feels like a hero. He was meant to feel down-to-earth and relatable, but came across more as an annoying kid who had no business being in the game. A character can be down-to-earth and a likable hero, as shown by Tidus' predecessor Zidane, but Tidus never pulls it off. At least Tidus is a pretty good character in Dissidia.