So, it’s been an interesting two weeks. Thanks to technical issues, we lost the first versions of this week’s episodes, and they were comedy gold. But we recorded some new commentaries, sadly losing Lex’s commentary, but gaining the Voice of Trainer Red alongside more regular contributors Soak and Carlie. I think our second go was just as good as the first, despite Carlie’s continued technical issues with episode 15, but I’ll let you listen in for the details there.

Wondering what you can expect this episode?

Our regulars join up with some blowhards.

Read the rest of this entry »

The ongoing Character Battle on the Lifestream forums has reached the knock-out stage, which kicks off with four exciting quarter-finals. They will run until the weekend, so it’s not too late to sign up and have your say!

The results of the group stage determined the quarter-final match-ups, which look like this:

1 – Cloud vs Celes
2 – Kain vs Vivi
3 – Aerith vs Lightning
4 – Tifa vs Fang

The winners of quarter-finals 1 and 2 will meet in a semi-final, as will their counterparts from quarter-finals 3 and 4. There will then be a final and a third/fourth place play-off. The competition runs until the end of May. Who are you supporting?

Hello, folks. Once again, I’m joined by Carlie, but with the addition of forumites Soak and Tennyo, and not-so-innocent bystander, Tennyo’s friend Lindsay for another two episode set of the newly rechristened Final Fantasy Unlimited Penetration. Last time, we left you on a cliffhanger. Wondering how it went?

Because fire is effective against plants and fungi, that’s how.

Yeah, like you didn’t already know that’s how it was going to end.

But what else can you expect from the next two episodes?

Read the rest of this entry »

Continuing our theme of making Final Fantasy VII a more multi-player experience here on The Lifestream, we’ve just re-started a Community Playthrough of the game, in which our forum members play along at the same time and all discuss it together. If that sounds like your kind of thing, read on…

Read the rest of this entry »

The first ever Final Fantasy race on The Lifestream took place over the weekend, with Prince Lex comfortably beating Flintlock to the end of the game.

Here we take a look back at how it all unfolded and get the thoughts of the players.

Read the rest of this entry »

Update: the race finished on day two! That means there will be no broadcasts on the third day, Sunday. Look out for a report on how it all unfolded on TLS in the next few days.

If you thought Final Fantasy VII was only a single-player game, think again. This weekend on The Lifestream, two of our members will play the game head to head as they race from “New Game” to “The End”.

There is a dedicated page for this race, which contains both players’ streams, so you can watch their progress, and a chat room for discussion. Both players will be in the chat room and will be able to field questions during their breaks.

The playing sessions will take place on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, from 14:00 to 21:00 UTC each day. You can check what that is in your timezone here. Those seven hours include five and a half hours of playing, a few breaks, and around half an hour at the end to discuss it and answer any questions you might have.

Read on for the rules and the players.

Read the rest of this entry »

It’s been two weeks, and that means it’s time for another two episodes of our increasingly silly Final Fantasy Unlimited commentaries. This week, I’m joined by just Carlie, on the occasion that we officially redub the series Final Fantasy Unlimited Penetration.

What’s that expendable giant monster? You’re complaining about how little screen time you get?

These two episodes mark a noted change in the series, the part where stuff starts getting real, if not any more coherent.

So what can you expect from this week’s episode?

Read the rest of this entry »

A Final Fantasy character battle has just got under way on our forum, where the most popular characters from across the series will compete for the honour of being our community’s number one. Who will emerge victorious from the very strong line-up?

Across the first three months of 2012, The Lifestream ran a series of polls, one for every game in the main Final Fantasy series (XI and XIV excluded), to determine the most popular character from each one. The 12 victors, alongside 12 of the best runners-up, have now been drawn into four groups of six, where they will once again compete in polls of their popularity among our members. A live draw on the #TLS IRC channel last night determined the groups, which look like this:

1 – Auron, Cloud, Ingus, Cecil, Squall and Lightning.
2 – Kain, Sazh, Garland, Lulu, Fang and Kefka.
3 – Vivi, Laguna, Firion, Yuna, Zidane and Aerith.
4 – Balthier, Faris, Celes, Tifa, Rikku and Freya.

We need your participation to make this battle as exciting as possible. Who would you like to win in each of those groups? Cast your votes on the forum throughout April in group 1, group 2, group 3 and group 4.

The second part of this article contains a preview of the favourite for each group.

Read the rest of this entry »

It’s been two weeks, folks, and our delays were even longer this time, but my turnaround was quicker, so it’s time for another few FFU episodes. This week I’m joined by Soak, Carlie, and longtime lurker and FFVII LP participant Jocalyn, as we cover episodes 9 and 10 of this increasingly insane series.

What’s in store this week?

Lou is still inappropriately clingy towards our ultra angsty hero.

Read the rest of this entry »

Stop that Lou, you’ll scare people.

Hey folks, sorry for the delay, I’ve been busy, and we’ve had technical issues, but we’re ready with another set of two FFU episode commentaries. This time I’m joined by commentary regular Force and Tennyo, as well as a newcomer, Tennyo’s friend Lindsey.

So what can you expect in these episodes?

Read the rest of this entry »

From now through September 30, you can see Final Fantasy VII and its PS-era cousin Final Fantasy Tactics on display at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C. Featured in what’s being called “one of the first exhibitions to explore the forty-year evolution of video games as an artistic medium,” these and 78 other titles (expect a lot of “Zelda” games) from consoles spanning as far back as the Atari VCS will serve to offer the public a vision of gaming’s roots and its future.

In addition to screenshots and video footage of the games presented, galleries will include video interviews with 20 developers and artists, as well as five playable games selected to demonstrate the evolution of visual capabilities and interactivity. The five selected playable games will be “Pac-Man,” “Super Mario Bros.,” “The Secret of Monkey Island,” “Myst” and “Flower.”

Other than FFVII and FFTactics, other games near and dear to my heart to be featured in the exhibit include “Shadow of the Colossus” and “flOw.” The latter, by the way, is from the same developers as the aforementioned “Flower” and the newly released “Journey” — which, if you haven’t played yet, you need to be playing before you do anything else with your life, including eat, sleep or go to work. Seriously, if “Journey” had been released prior to the selection process for the titles to be featured in the exhibit, it would not only be one of the 80, it would have the spot “Flower” received in the hands-on portion.

Anyway, for a complete list of the selected games, visit this page; and for more details about the exhibit itself (including when and where you can catch it in other cities over the upcoming four years), go here.

Finally, you can check out the Smithsonian’s official trailer for the exhibition on YouTube:

Article Index

Chocobo Farm to Corel Prison

We are speeding through the world of FFVII, hence why the article titles will read as “Location A to Location B” for a good while from now on. In this case we start with the Chocobo Farm, move on to the intermediate areas of the Mythril Mines, Fort Condor, Junon, Costa del Sol, Mt. Corel, North Corel, and Gold Saucer, and then we end with a visit to the cosy desert spot of Corel Prison.

On the way we will, among other things, analyse a scrapped mechanic for the Fort Condor battles and see more unused scenes left behind by Motomu Toriyama.

Read the rest of this entry »