So Fair is fair

Alright, so I admit i have been slacking on both beer and final fantasy posts.
But in all fairness, I, as a human being, cannot be painted into a (dual) corner of just two interests...
I am still in the midsts of FFI. It is a fantastic game, and I hope to do it justice. And I will. But for now I am deeply involved in another RPG.
Sadly, it happens to be one at a time.

but hey, since we're here let's talk about another interest of mine:


Metal.

 Because my blog can't be called Final Fantasy and Beer and Metal and whatever else I fancy at the time...

So I'm going to talk about two of the best metal bands I (at this time) think are the best (of the time):

Job for a Cowboy.

Yeah, doesn't really sound like a good death metal band name. but it IS. And no, i have no idea what any of the lyrics are.

Carnifex.

Pretty metal no matter how you put it.
I mean, it's Latin, which in itself is pretty metal. Also, Carnifex means Butcher, which is also pretty metal in and of itself.

So yeah, keep in mind that even though I'm not always here, or not always writing abut video games, keep in mind that I am always planning the next entry in the FF&B Blog.

beer! again

So having spent these last few weeks focusing more on beer then Final Fantasy, i suppose it's time to 'splain myself:

i have about two hours logged in my first play-through of the first Final Fantasy. But as of press time I cannot seem to find them. so this is going to be a beer entry.

So let it be said now that I am a proud Colorado native. I grew up.. well... somewhere in Colorado, and now I live in Denver. I like it here, and fully intend on living the rest of my life here.

One of the many things I like about this state is multitude of microbrews I have access to. And tonights entry is one of those.

Upslope Brewing Company is a fairly recent and limited brewery. It's based out of Boulder, a town which has its fair share of microbrewers. I think Upslope stands out because they focus on three styles: Pale Ale, which I am reviewing in this entry, India Pale Ale, which turned me on to Upslope, and  a brown.

So on to the review: the Pale Ale is very smooth. A little hoppy for a pale ale, but only slightly too much. It comes in a can, so it is easier to enjoy, and the can takes away the pretension that is almost certainly associated with a bottle. I found it more or less on accident at my favorite local liquor store. I was on a mission to find a good pale ale, and i just happened to grab the one
 with the simple design. (turns out i'm a minimalist).

So by happy fortune everyone liked it, and it quickly became one of my favorite beers.

First First

I have been planning this blog  for several years now.

Actually, I have been planning a walkthrough of the Final Fantasy games in blog form for some time.

Originally, I planned to do it on the screwattack site, but they went from text based content to user based video content sooner than an old chap like me could keep up with, so I had to abandon that plan sooner than I had hoped.

So after said setbacks, it was high time I took matters into my own hands.


*I started this commentary (for lack of a better word) a few weeks ago, and in the interest of whatever the shit i plan to do with this blog, here is my first entry, in its PBR induced entirety:

                                                          yay booze!




Begin 12/23 2:20 AM

(note: i remember when i played this on the NES,i was allowed to pick names for the heros)

the party is as fallows:

Warrior: Argus

Monk: Gorn

White Mage: Noam

Black Mage: Homac


yeah, i would like to clarify that i did not choose those names. they were randomly selected by the GBA.


Before I continue, at this point I would like to point out my method and platform of playing this game.



This time around I am playing the game on the GBA. But, I would like to solidify the fact that I am OG, the first time I played this game WAS on the NES.

And I would like to make this point very clear as early as possible:
Yes, 8-bit games were awesome, and yes, those were the golden years of gaming. but that does not make any any/or every game made in the 8-bit era a classic.

I'm old enough to have lived through that time, and let me tell you, most of those games were fucking HORRIBLE.

Wow. not even close to the beginning of my FF walkthrough.

why could that be?

The Cause of and Solution To

Long before i turned 21.
Long before i was born.
Long before my fathers or their fathers or even their fathers were born:

There existed Beer.

Even before America was great, or even concieved:

There existed Beer.

Before King Henry or Charlemange or even Caesar:

There existed Beer.

It has been established that beer is the reason our ancestors settled down from the hunter/gatherer lifestyle to the sedentary farming lifestyle. It turned disease-bringing water into a life-giving elixir.
And I honor my ancestors by enjoying it throughout.

                                                 one of my ancestral homelands

So tonight I honor and imbibe Stella Artois.
Not my favorite, but by far the easiest to obtain and drink, without being considered a session beer.
Now I understand that by starting the first beer of my Final Fantasy and Beer blog with a beer that is pretty well known and probably looked down upon as a sorority girl beer, let me defend that preemptively with this argument:

"hey fuck you man, Stella is a good beer!"

                                        at least the Man in Black thought so [citation needed]

QED.

So that having been established, let me explain further why I enjoy (and consequently drink) Stella.
For starters, the taste is pretty non-offensive. Even for a green-bottle beer, I have rarely, if ever found a skunky taste in it. But I have had even more success when I have it on tap, if I am lucky enough to find one.
In short, Stella is a good a lager as any, and I have yet to find someone that really does not like it. Yeah, it's a people pleaser, but that in and of itself does not a bad beer make.

Bottoms up!

some back story:

So Final Fantasy was not my first role playing video game. It, of course, was not my first video game (Castlevania holds that honor), but surprisingly it was not my first role playing game.

"Big deal" you might as very well be saying. "We all played Dungeons and Dragons before that came out!"

Well that may be the case for you, but i sincerely hope you did not share my childhood. Without getting too personal too soon on this blog, my childhood was AWFUL and a NIGHTMARE and it SCARRED ME FOR LIFE!!!!!


not really. but i did spend a lot of time playing my first rpg, Dragonraid.
It was pretty awesome. totally not evil like D&D.

Religious fanaticism aside, i didn't really pay too much attention to RPGs until shortly after my initial subscription to Nintendo Power.

From what i understand, every subscriber to Nintendo Power in the early 90's received a copy of a weird game from a weird Japanese company called Enix. The game was called Dragon Warrior.

                                          yeah, if you we're 10, you'd shit yourself too

It was  about some unnamed hero who had to complete some quest started by his long-lost ancestor Erdrik to slay a dragon master to ensure the continuance of the human race, or probably something like that. I remember that was the first game I ever played on the NES that was impossible, fucking IMPOSSIBLE, to beat in one sitting. Well, at least the first one I was aware of that was designed to be impossible to beat in one sitting...

I played that game for hours and hours. And for the most part I had no idea what i was doing. But I leveled up and I got the flute and I got Erdriks armor and I got the sunstone and I found the bridge to the Dragonlords lair and beat him and all that....
I still remember the dungeon music and the enemy music and even how to get through Swamp Cave without a torch...

Dragon Warrior changed my entire perspective of video games, which until then consisted of sidescrollers and point-and-clicks...

Fine. I could go on, but this blog isn't about all the RPGs I've ever played, it's about the best RPGs I've ever played.

Final Fantasy.

also, in all fairness this blog is also about beer.
i guess we'll see which one gets more attention...