Final Fantasy for Potterheads.

What does that title even mean. and if you know what game its actually the byline to then give yourself ten points, because I don't think anyone would get it from that.

I've never read Harry Potter he always came over as an insufferable little prick in the films, I have played Final Fantasy. So if you immediately think of a JRPG stuffed full of insufferable 15 year old Bishonen twunts and anime waifus, you'd fail as this is actually describing Fire Emblem.Be glad that JK Rowling isn't doing this, as there'd be an after market patch that made every character trans, because that's how they were meant to be.

For those wondering about what Fire Emblem is, its a Wargame with permadeath that is well regarded in Japan but not so in the west despite the games themselves being great. That tag line is from the print edition of the Metro Newspaper. The online version is here and is still tainted with the Potter curse.

If we were going to sell the series, I'd say it was basically an anime Game of Thrones but a touch less grim. Your characters still die though, due to bad planning, over confidence and a gamble on outcomes that you can misjudge. Badly.

There's a rock paper scissors style to the combat, don't put any flying horses up against archers even though they have great range, likewise any one with close range weapons can decimate archers and mages. Later instalments brought romance options to your doomed troops, and of course the garbage people have been whinging for gay relationship options, just because well why not.

The series (by Advanced Wars developer Intelligent systems) has been running since NES days in Japan, and there's patches for the NES and SNES instalments over at RHDN, for the curious. It's a bit of a late system game too, 776 Thracia came out in 1999 well into the Playstation era.

For me, the GBA game Secret Stones with Lady Lyndis and Elwood was my introduction to the series, and can say that it doesn't disappoint, at all. There are of course more recent games to pick, and I'd say don't bother with Shadow Dragon for DS, and choose any of the 3DS incarnations to get you money's worth.

Edit now with screenshot.

Finally as I was up town for reasons last Friday, I will give a shout out to Dimes Juices as a blatant plug, especially their apple and sour cherry flavour. Really good Fruit Juices from turk e yay (Turkey)
and worth the 79p spent on it. Also the folks in the shop, I got it from, had a huge black and white cat (a shop Byron if you will.) sitting out so if I'm back that way, I'll be sure to go back.

Picross

I've been getting well into Picross recently.  You may know it under a load of different names but essentially it all boils down to using co ordinates to fill in a grid to make a picture. I'll explain how to do it below.

Pikachu I see you.

The numbers at the side state how many in a row or column there is to fill in so in a 10 by 10 grid if you see a 10 it means you can fill in the whole row. Numbers that are split (like 4 /5) have a space between them so you can fill in 4 spaces leave a space and fill in the rest.

Further rules come into play as if you have more than 6 spaces to fill in a row.  Instead of taking a guess on where they will be, count in the number you have from the edge and then put a cross at its furthest extent, do the same from the other side, finally fill the squares from the cross to the other cross including the squares with the crosses on.  If any of these are at an edge it will give you another chance to fill in some squares as it gives you a base to work from.  There are other better explanations for more advanced techniques out there but these are the basics and the built in tutorial is actually pretty good at explaining.

The downside of this apart from it being a freemium game and all that it entails, (limited energy for puzzling and move sets, pay for extra energy etc etc) is that what you are drawing isn't made clear, in fact I'll go as far as saying that unless you are a Pokemon and know intimately what it looks like from a blown up sprite, then you are going to be scratching your head quite a bit of the time.

It doesn't ruin it but then again it does make it bastard hard especially on the rare 20 by 15 grids.

In further news I've added a few PS3 games including Oblivion, Dark Souls 2 and the PS3 version of  Marvel V Capcom 3 which I played in HMV ages ago.  All that is moot though as I found out why its been chucked out, there are heatsink / GPU problems causing it to glitch like a bastard.  I'm of course going to get it fixed but if its not economical to do so then I won't bother.  Its the only reason why I didn't go all in last gen (that and always on internet connectivity), you can't rely on the hardware anymore.

Gateway 3DS

This is probably the bestest thing evar to hit the 3DS a flash card that if its correct will see off the hated region lock that Nintendo* have lumbered the 3DS with.  There is a big list of questions here as well as a massive thread over at GBAtemp forum.

People are speculating that this is the beginning of piracy on the 3DS and to be honest it will be something I would warrant as I really don't fancy downloading anything from Nintendo's overpriced online Eshop. Especially since certain stuff will never, ever be officially on cart in Europe, Shin Megami Tensei 4 and a few other things that are deemed not commercially viable here.  To be honest this is what I use my PSP for playing back ups of  UMDs and rarely Emulation.  Would be great to see this scene explode on the 3DS, along with the inevitable NES / Spectrum Emulators maybe even get some emulators working.

The DS generation gave us Colours art package, Moonshell, Nitrotracker and a homebrew version of Tetris 3 the grand battle before it was pulled and disappeared into internet oblivion.  The 3DS is much more powerful and would love to see what could be made in the right hands.

*Until Nintendo update firmware that kills it off of course.  >;*)

Losing Neverland

We didn't realise until it was posted up on Siliconera but the company Neverland is going into liquidation.
Though mainly known for the Rune Factory series of games they also did the Lufia series for the SNES and later other systems, which I've never played but have been really well received (IIRC Superplay gave it 79%).  So with heavy heart its time to give the first 3 Rune Factories a good raking over.

Rune Factory.

The original but not the first Harvest Moon Spin off, and if you've played Harvest Moon you would be at home here.  Basically its Harvest Moon with combat and a few bits and pieces to add to it.  You can marry and have children just like Harvest moon and they will not do anything much here though later series will expand on this.

It still starts the same you turn up in some no mark village with amnesia and have to take over a plot of land to turn it around.  You'll gain tools by talking to people and have a small cave to explore at the end of your land.  Where it differs is  that there are generators in there that spawn monsters and your farm tools will deal damage as well as dropping items that can be used to craft more weapons and armour.  There are a few ladies to court and settle down with, theres no gender selection here though until  I think 4 and beating the first dungeon (Clemens cave) will give you a chance to take on other caves dotted around.

I haven't played this in ages and had IIRC Sickly Felicity from the store as my partner, though I could have had the girl who ran the bath house.  (Pro Tip: exploit the bath house you'll get back all your energy and it only costs 10 gold, you'll make that back easily selling random weeds).  I remember the vicar was a miserable cunt called Wesley, and that the fisherwoman Sabrina was a total lush, sadly not dateable they have a thing against milfs.  The kid in this Cecillia becomes a date option in Rune Factory 2 predictably she is a maid character.  

At a glance what is new here.
Many caves to defeat, though this would be reduced to 4 seasonal caves in later games.
Combat with recruitable creatures that could be sent to work on your farm.
Thats it

Rune Factory 2

This is a continuation of the story set in Alvarna, you still have amnesia and for some reason you are in a different part of the country.  Your dungeons have been reduced down to 4 and worse part until you settle down with a nice young lady, knock her up and more crucially build a school you won't actually be able to explore any of the dungeons fully (and only then as your offspring).  Incidentally you'll do the ultimate dead beat dad thing and bugger off a full two days after all those things are implemented (though those townsfolk saps still hold you in high esteem).  So with school built and lessons to go to your child can learn recipes for making things and due to some pretty harsh unlocks it'll take ages to level up and make the best weapons and food.  Our bride here was Yue a travelling merchant and cutie in a kimono, although we could of had wannabe teacher Mana or Cecillia one of the only recurring characters from the original Rune Factory.  I still haven't beaten this as the bosses are tough and it takes ages to do stuff, plus time really drags here and your day takes what seems like a week to pass.  This is the weakest in series definitely.

At a glance whats new here.
Reduced caves to fight in.
Generational story that lets your kids fight your battles for you.
Days that drag on for weeks.
Takes ages to actually cobble together anything for making.

Rune Factory 3

This is a more modern version and isn't really inspired by anything that went before.  You still have amnesia and you still get a plot of land  to cultivate, however this time you get the upgrades from the later Harvest Moon games.  This boils down to you can throw items without them disappearing and seeds only fill one plot of land rather than a 3x3 square.  You can also grow seeds that will grow into monsters that will help you out, we have a floating lillypad to help us get around and something that becomes a sword.  On the downside everyone without exception of the ginger bird on the box is a mental or shapeshifter of some description, (Spoiler as are you as it turns out, you can turn into a yellow sheep for no apparent reason, maybe its set in Wales.)

Your choices are limited to.
Ginger bird (Shara), reasonably normal has a little sister called Monica who is a brat.
Narcoleptic shop keepers daughter, wants to go to the big city but is too lazy to do anything.
Raven. Near mute weapons dealer.
Pia. Squid loving mermaid runs the bath.
Sakura. Reasonably normal girl that runs the junk shop.
Sophia. Opposite speaking daughter of fat bastard mayor Jasper.
Collette. Perpetually hungry daugher of the innkeeper.
Daria. Flaky artist who lives outside town. Really loves rainbows.
Marion. Runs the clinic and is basically Joseph Mengele in a fucking dress, always experimenting on Collete.
Carlos the fishermans daughter, a tomboy.
Finally they've spawned a village in desert that holds a village of monsters you can date their leader even though she has a horn. I've yet to pick a bride but will probably plump for the narcoleptic shopkeepers daughter out of consistency.
Edit we've married the narcoleptic shopkeepers daughter who promptly gets herself kidnapped.

Combat is much better here and they've tightened up the time issue from before now the clock ticks down even when you are in buildings.  You also learn stuff by eating recipe bread that the innkeeper bakes, which makes no sense but is a nice touch.

At a glance whats new.

Systems imported from later Harvest Moons, i.e. Throwing stuff, limited seed placement.
Your house is basically a great big tree.
Most of the women you can date are borderline psycho or shapeshifters.