Hello! For everyone who doesn't know by now, my name is Marcus Stephens AKA The Modern Marvel, The Holiest Man in Wrestling, FatmanStephens, Brother Marcus, and soon to be, The Bare Minimum. Now, if there is ANYONE who has been around since the beginning, you'll know that this isn't my first post as I've already done about 200 posts already chronicling all the way back to 2008. I just wanted to reintroduce myself as I might have new people from my Twitter/Facebook/Youtube accounts coming to check me out. THIS IS GOING TO BE A LOOOOONNNNGGGG POST. Fair warning!!!
As I've stated, I'm Marcus Stephens, currently unemployed fatman from Yeadon, Pennsylvania. I'm 20 years old, turning 21 in October. My biggest loves in life (outside of my love of Christ) are video games and pro wrestling. I guess I'll talk about gaming first.
Being born in 1990 meant that I already missed the original NES, Atari, and the glory days of arcades. The first system I REMEMBER playing was the Sega Genesis and it was neeto burrito! (Thanks Brandon!) The first game I played on the system was of course, Sonic the Hedgehog. I loved it and I play it yearly on the Ultimate Genesis Collection. If I ever made a Top 10 list of the best games I ever played, (which I'm going to eventually) there would be at least one Genesis title on there. Genesis is where I first played Beyond Oasis, one of my favorite action RPG. It's probably the first one I played as well. It was a relatively short game, but it was fantastic. Landstalker and Light Crusader are two others that come to mind when thinking of great action RPGs on the system. Genesis was also the first time I got a taste of the Shining series and I've been CRAVING a new SRPG from the series ever since. I can thank my brother and this series for getting me into RPGs. Also, I can't forget about the, dare I say, PHANTASTIC Phantasy Star series? Not the crap online ones, the original JRPG ones, PSIV is my fav of the series. I never beat any of them and that is definitely a goal of mine before I die. So, basically, without Sega Genesis, I would never have become a video game fan. I mean, but that goes without saying. Also, forgot to mention Sega Channel. We had Suburban Cable and I remember playing Sega Channel all the time in my youth. Saved my mother a lot of cash back in the day.
Super Nintendo was a system I barely gave much playtime to. I mean, I played the big titles from it like Link to the Past and Super Mario World, but I missed gems like Earthbound, Secret of Mana, and of course Super Mario RPG. I got a chance to play them like 10 years later though through an emulator. I don't think I could've handled all the those RPGs back then. I mean, I couldn't even beat Phantasy Star IV so what makes you think I could've beaten all of those fantastic games? I sometimes wonder what would have happened if I played Super Nintendo first instead of Genesis? Things I ponder at night. Anyway, Super Nintendo, great console, just didn't get into when it came out.
Playstation and Nintendo 64 was the first time I had the two big consoles at the same time, so I had to spread my gaming time out between the two of them while dealing with school. Hard life right?
I believe my brother and I received a Playstation first. I don't remember the first game I played but I remember going out to the Granite Run Mall and getting new games every month from the game store in there. I remember buying Fighting Force, Bugs Bunny: Lost in Time, and many other games from that store, but none of those games made me a big fan of video games. The first game I remember my brother playing was Final Fantasy VII and I was BLOWN away. I used to watch my brother play video games all the time and when he showed me FF7, I knew I had to play that game. I actually didn't get to REALLY play that game until I got my own PS1 and that was WAY down the line in my life., but I digress. Anyway, my brother continued to introduce me to the awesome games PS1 had to offer. FF8 and 9, Final Fantasy Tactics, and the game that changed my life FOREVER, Alundra. Alundra was a action RPG made by the now defunct Working Designs, who also made the last couple PS1 games I played, Arc the Lad 1-3. Anyway, that was another game I watched my brother play and I INSTANTLY fell in love with it. I saw him get to the very end and get stuck in the last dungeon. After he finally quit playing it, I started a new file and enjoyed the game until the end, where I also got stuck at the last dungeon. I would eventually beat Alundra, basically around the same time I finally finished FF7. Alundra is one of the three games from this era that I blame for my obsession with video games to this day. Another big game that my brother played in front of me was Breath of Fire 3. It's another game I had to wait until my brother was done with and play it on my own. It's classic turn based RPG mechanics, awesome soundtrack, and great story kept me coming back for more. Love the game and it's the only one of my favorites that I don't have easy access to today, going to have to change that eventually. The next game I'm about to name was a game that my brother didn't play first. This is a game series that I first discovered on Genesis and followed ever since and it happens to be my favorite game of all time. It is Castlevania: Symphony of the Night! I played it when it first came out and it's probably the game I've beaten the most to date. When I first played it, I beat it fairly easily, just running to the end and trying to beat the game and go to the next one, something I did a lot as a kid, not so much anymore. It wasn't until I was 16, almost 7 to 8 years later, that I found out there was a WHOLE other castle that I didn't even explore. THEN, it wasn't until I was 18 until I finally got 200.6% and thanks to Xbox 360, I have the achievement to prove it! It's the one game that I repay and complete yearly. I recently completed the game two weeks ago in 3 and a half hours and I'm STILL discovering secrets about the game. That's how I know it's a good game. I keep coming back to it and I'm still finding things to love about it 10 years later. It's my favorite game of all time. Playstation is my favorite system of all time. I really attribute PS1 for making me a life long hardcore gamer.
Nintendo 64 was a system I got for Christmas one year and I remember getting WCW VS NWO Revenge and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time with it, two games I played the heck out of. OoT is probably the best game ever made in my opinion and it just was such a fantastic experience. Zelda wasn't the only reason I loved the system. I loved underrated games such as Mischief Makers, Winback, Hybrid Heaven, and the Bomberman games. And of course, my favorite Nintendo 64 game, PAPER FRICKING MARIO. It was the first Mario RPG I played and is probably my favorite. It was so fun to play and easy to pick up. It was a traditional RPG experience with the awesome Mario universe. Hard to beat this game. And of course, I can't forget Smash Bros. When I first got this game, I was outside with my friends, and when my mom said she got me something special, I ran in the house. She handed me Smash Bros, and I quickly told my friends that I'll see them some other day. Horrible friend, yes, but was it worth it? You bet it was! I LOVED that game. Looking at the newer Smash games, it really doesn't compare. There's only 14 characters and it gets repetitive pretty fast, but man, I loved that game. It really made my childhood. I don't have many more memories of the 64 to be honest. I think I put much more time into the PS1 and I think I made the right decision, seeing how many RPGs came out for the console.
Dreamcast, Dreamcast, Dreamcast. Dreamcast had Skies of Arcadia, Sonic Adventure, and Shenmue. Skies of Arcadia is fantastic, I'm still waiting for a sequel. The turn based battles were great, the ship battles were different, and I loved the characters. Such a great JRPG and probably one of the last great ones I played. Sonic Adventure was the first game I got for DC and I played heck out of it. I didn't have a VMU so every time I played it, I had to keep starting over from the beginning. One Sunday, I played Sonic's story from start to the end. I got to the last boss and DIED. Talk about a Black Sunday. Well, even if I did beat the boss, I would've been mad to find out that I didn't beat the game yet. Anyway, it was a great Sonic game and a good first 3D Sonic. Now, it's time to talk about SHENMUE. What can I say about this game? It's a freaking masterpiece. The story, the gameplay elements, the dialogue, the cliffhanger, the motorcycle sequences that made me not beat Shenmue in the week that Blockbuster allowed, everything about this game was fantastic. For people who haven't played it, go buy a Dreamcast and play this ASAP. Then, go buy a Xbox and buy Shenmue II as well. You won't be sorry. Shenmue is a game that everyone should experience.
I got a Playstation 2, then a Gamecube, then a Xbox. The first game I played on PS2 was Orphan. I hate that game now, especially because the last boss was such a darn cheat, but when I first picked it up, it was a masterpiece. This was another game I played without a memory card. Another Sunday came (Sunday were my hardcore gaming days before I found the Lord) and I decided I was going to beat the game in one sitting. I got pretty far, and of course, lost to a boss and had an absolute fit. It was the 2nd worst gaming day ever for me. I hated that the boss and got revenge when I finally got a memory card and defeated him. Anyway, it was fantastic game when I played it, I don't like it so much now. Orphan was just the start of my RPG addiction. I played many, MANY great RPGs the awesome little black box known as PS2. FFX, Dragon Quest 8, Wild Arms 4 and 5, the Shadow Hearts series, and my favorite RPG series of all time, Shin Megami Tensei. The obsession with this series started here with Nocturne and I haven't looked back since. I absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE Persona 4 and if you want to read all my fanboy love for the game, go back to December 2009 on my blog. PS2 only fueled my RPG addiction and I loved every second of it.
When I got a Gamecube, I got Smash Bros Melee and Sonic Adventure 2 Battle along with it. Talk about a great way to start a console out. Melee was the best. It was the perfect party game to play. SA2 was something I already played on Dreamcast so I wasn't that excited to play it again. Gamecube wasn't really a RPG console, but it did have a couple RPG gems, more than the Xbox did. Tales of Symphonia was the first one I played. It was my real first taste of the Tales series and it was something I really never experienced before. All the RPGs I played were turned based, so to play a fighting game with RPG elements was new to me. I embraced it though and ended up loving the game. I remember that I got lost and put it down for 2 months but then came right back to it. This is one of the only games that got that treatment from me. Once I usually put a RPG down that's not beaten, that's it. It's a wrap. I'm never going to play it again. Don't know why I did it with this game, but not with Arc Rise Fantasia. Anyway, TOS was great. Paper Mario 2 came out on my birthday in 04. This game made my birthday. So much fun, more use of the paper elements, a lot of comedy like breaking the fourth wall, and very challenging. The last boss was a pain the butt area. Terrific game. Baten Kaitos is a weird RPG. The voice acting was horrendous, the turn based battles were hard to get use to, and the bosses were way too hard, but the game ended up being one of my favorites on the Gamecube. The music was amazing, the story had a lot of Namco twists and turns, and after a while, the battles became really fun. It was probably the biggest surprise of all my Gamecube games.
Xbox only had Shenmue II, which was another instant classic. Everything that made the first one a masterpiece was back in the 2nd one and I'm still waiting for the epic 3rd.
This generation of gaming has pretty solid. Dead Space and No More Heroes are two series that really stand out for me this generation. I have never been more scared playing Dead Space 1 and the original NMH is such a classic on the Wii. It was different, funny, original, and full of awesome characters. Suda51 at his best. JRPGs had a couple great titles come out early in this generation, like Tales of Vesperia, Eternal Sonata, and Lost Odyssey. All of those great in different ways. Eternal Sonata had an interesting battle system, Vesperia's length and classic Tales gameplay was on full display, and Lost Odyssey went back to the good ole days of JRPGs. Time will only tell if we get anymore classics like those, but as it stands, JRPGs are basically dead. Can't wait for Tales of Graces F and if we get it, Tales of Xilla!
There are a lot of other games I played this generation, but I'm super tired and I think you've got a general idea of what kind of gamer I am. At least, I hope you do.
Well, that was part 1 of reintroducing myself to the internet. Part 2 will be wrestling and television shows! Expect a lot of banter about the bad guys of WWE and how great iCarly is. Yup, I typed iCarly. More later!
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