DuDs: FFX Yuna

Another collection for my apparel layout! Of course, I won't leave my favorite Final Fantasy behind! Grabbing this awesome shirt from Redbubble, here I am getting more geeked out with my DuDs!

Now we are all used to seeing FFX logo as blue'ish. Because of Spira and FFX, in general, was water based world and idea. Well.... this one made it look a bit more 'crimson and purple'.  It goes along with my color scheme a bit more! It's a nice take, suffice to say! 

DuDs: FFVI Terra Branford

If I haven't made it perfectly clear: I am a fan of FFVI. I LOVE Terra, Celes, Locke, Shadow... and the list goes on. It's definitely one of Final Fantasy's greatest addition, but it's not the most popular. We'll leave that to games like FFVII, FFX, FFXV. So suffice it to say, merchandise is rare!

Obviously, I found one, didn't I? Featuring Terra in riding her magiteck armor, this piece is as subtle as it is stunning! You all know where I got this beauty! 

Final Fantasy - The Complete History (1987-2016)

It's a great little quick guide for the Franchise's thirty years of rich history. From its greatest moments(FFVI, FFVII, FFX), to its worst turn (FFXI, FFXIV; 13 > 14), to the spinoffs(FFX-2, FFT)... this game truly is one of the best. And with the arrival of Prince Noctis, the Fantasy is reborn. 

Keep it strong, Final Fantasy. I will always be here hoping for the best. 

Final Fantasy in 2017

If there is some truth to this then jeez.... I have to have this. And here I am BARELY able to get some hours on FFXV. 

Masterless: "To good Friends"

Masterless: When I was young I once had a dream that I would have a group of friends; friends who would walk the journey of life with me. Friends who would fight along with me. Laugh with me. Make me better. Friends who are real. Friends who don't use you for their own self gain. Friends who don't berrate you, or shun you down so that they may feel like heroes. Friends who don't abandon you. Friends who never grow apart with time but only grow stronger. 

Friends who will play the role of life with you.

Friends who will live and die with you. 

And when the Epilogue comes and the next lifetime is ready to take you to far away times... those friends, their legacy, their meaning, and what they stood for will remain with you. From one lifetime, to the next. 

Yes I once believed in fairy tales. I once thought that these people exist. I once thought love exists. But... I know when the Epilogue comes, I will remember the friends I lost, the friends I fought, the friends who fought me, and the friends who left. The friends who looked down on you and smirked, the friends who continued to remind you of your villainy...

Friends who aren't friends. 

When I leave this world behind, I will remember being alone. I will be the dark cloud that shall challenge the fools and their fallacies. I will be the one that they cannot and will not defeat. 

I will be the Villain this world made me to be. 

I wish I had good friends... friends who would fight for me. Try for me. Friends who would remind me that I am still worth something despite the cold and cruel fate that I hold. Despite the knowledge and irrefutable fact that burdens me....

Friends who will be there to far away times and at the end of it. Maybe if they were there, the Epilogue wouldn't be so bad. 

Playarts: Princess Garnet / "Dagger"

Another classic Playarts review! Yes I will get to Fran, but first let me just get to another figure that has been long overdue out of the box. Yes, it's one of the characters by one of the most forgettable Final Fantasy to me: Princess Garnet or Dagger from Final Fantasy IX!

Here's Garnet's box, which is of course very Playarts classic. Zidane and Vivi are the other ones from this wave; not interested in getting either of them unless they are at a dead cheap price. 

As far as accessories, Garnet does come with a pair of fists to alternate with her open palm hand. She comes with her staff which can only be held by her right hand through the use of a peg. One thing I will say is that perhaps they should have had her 'haircut' alternate head. That would have paid real homage to her in-game appearance. And of course she is accessorized with the standard classic Playarts stand.

Speaking of details, they did get her necklace right; a piece that is sculpted separately and 'hangs' like a real necklace on Dagger. A real nice accessory to add even if it is not intended to be removed. Well, at least I would not remove it.

Now I'm going to tangent here and talk about my feelings of FFIX. To me, FFIX is a decent Final Fantasy. It has the ambiance for the most part and it truly does feel like a classic Final Fantasy, so with that said, WHY do I consider IX to be a bastard Final Fantasy like the online games FFXI and FFXIV? While the two online games are completely separate entities of how I see Final Fantasy(make something an online game only, and it's not your classic Final Fantasy. Sorry. FFXIII, as terrible and as much of a far cry that was from the FF theme still retains MUCH MORE of a the Final Fantasy essence that online gaming. My opinion, but it has some merits. Excuse my french but FUCK FFXI and FFXIV for taking two numbers of the FF series that COULD HAVE BEEN great single playing FF but had to be ruined for the sake of sating online gaming). So as for FFIX, there seems to be a feeling of 'regress' with FFIX for me. I don't know... it didn't do anything special and it gave us some boring characters. People will argue that ViVi is awesome, and yeah while he might be, but he is just as forgettable as Bartz. Again, my opinion but still. FFIX... you had potential to follow up on what FFVII and FFVI did. Then again, FFVIII tried too hard.

So spending that much time ranting about the characters and how they are forgettable, it goes back to the idea that the designs of these characters are lackluster for me. Garnet is probably one of the better ones along with Vivi and Amarant, but none of the other characters fared well aesthetically. What is up with chibi look, by the way? But for a figure, this one is pretty good. It captures Dagger's look just fine and the sculpt is spot on with the big hands and feet. The color details is nice and the shadowing on Garnet's overalls does fade in well. It is a great looking figure, that much I can say.

Now my last two reviews on 'older' Playarts characters seem to turn sour on the articulation part and Dagger does not follow that trend. While she does have the outdated 'lack of hair' movement (hinders head movement range), surprisingly, I had a ton of fun posing her around! Probably because her clothing did not obstruct certain poses, or maybe because of the smaller mold, who knows? But she was a ton of fun posing around and I enjoyed getting her in some of these poses.

It is a shame that she can only hold her staff with one hand so that brings the fun level down a bit, but again, it is an older figure so I can't complain that much.

For a comparison, here she is next to some classic Playarts female leads who all fall along the lines of 'staff-wielding-healing-magic-user-gal'. I probably won't review Yuna or Aerith, but they are decent looking figures as well and having them next to Dagger is a cool little set up. 

All in all, I am really astonished with HOW MUCH I adore this figure. I'm glad I took her out of her box finally and displayed her with the rest of the Final Fantasy ranks. She made me curious on the other FFIX playarts for a moment there. Awesome sculpt, decent paint, much better articulation than the FFVIIs were... thoroughly enjoyed! All in all, for those of you who are a fan of FFIX, this figure (and I'm assuming Vivi and Zidane as well) are a must! For a none-FFIX fan, this figure is amazing and I love it! 

Damsel of the Month:

Name/Alias: Yuna, "High Summoner"

Game/Series: Final Fantasy X, Final Fantasy X-2, Kingdom Hearts 2, Dissidia

Some Words: FFX/X2 HD comes out this month so is it the main reason why Yuna deserves the month Damsel of the Month? Well, no. She deserves it for a lot of reason, butt it's a good icing on the cake that 'her game' comes out this month. Of course her fellow FFX member, Rikku, had already received the notable mention last Christmas but with reptile eye's art on the right, she is getting some assistance for some bondage action! So putting the bondage aside for a moment, Yuna wasn't that enamoring for me in FFX visage wise. Maybe that's the conservative side I don't particularly like when I'm looking at my video game gals, but honestly, I like Yuna's 'heart'. She is the 'good-girl-I'll-do-anything-to-save-anyone'. So that part is a win. When she became the main character for the FFX-2, she had a complete redo of her outfit and I drooled(and Rikku's outfit….!)

Art by LoZ

So the paradigm shift(pun for you FFXIII lovers) is more than apparent and not entirely received with jubilance. Honestly for me, I like it for my own perverted reason! Now I will also say that there are some wardrobe failures with how … 'different' she is compared to her FFX version, but HEY! She is noteworthy for some bondage on both costumes! Geekling from DA thinks so in that picture on the right! Let's put it this way, FFX, there is a certain beauty to her reservations and in FFX-2, the imagination is decreased but hey it for sure shows that the girl has gotten some change in confidence, huh?!

Speaking of costume, like Rikku, Yuna has a plethora of outfit to pick and choose through her dressphere selection! Gunner is still my favorite out of the bunch though she would look good with more 'natural' bondage on her songstress outfit!

Speaking of dresspheres, YRP all have their share in their bondage love, don't they? Mugen-Nawashi from DA thinks so anyways!

And so does Karouso Maker! Rikku would make a fantastic dom!

Oh and of course Lost One Zero would do more great D.I.D. art of the great YRP in distress!

Wish  this really happened in the game! Art by: burnup19 from DA

Yuna also has a submissive personality to her that would really make it seem that she would enjoy her distressing situation. I believe with the proper push, her submissive side would come to enjoy some forced… arousal mood. A couple of fanfics explored that side of her but of course the games has to keep insinuations submerged! Guess that's where fanfics and fan arts comes in handy!

And of course Loz is more than kind to provide us with a couple of fan art of her bondage. And Miss Yuna just doesn't get into trouble by herself! Her fellow FF gals get into it with her as well!

Her and Quisitis seems to be getting into enough trouble as it is under Erickson's whim! Check out his page to get more variants of this scene!

More of Loz's art that depicts her getting in trouble with Quistis again AND some other prominent FF gals like Tifa!

YRP and Lulu. Couldn't find the artist.

Karouso-Maker DiD some art of FF gals like the one above. Shame that he missed the minor blue/green eyes of Yuna though.

And we've seen the art above in Rikku's month, but it's always nice to recap it since it is the two getting bound and captured together. Still a bigger fan of the X-2 outfit of Rikku's! She has a couple of solos as we have seen. She seems to like to get stuck on the worst places possible though:

The picture below is also brought to my attention by a fellow Deviant; for some reason, I didn't have this piece saved thus why I didn't use it before!

Darkshadow

Yuna is indeed a perfect damsel. Honestly, she probably would be a funner damsel in her X-2 personality than her lul and dull version in FFX(admittedly, I like her best personality wise in FFX). Yuna have always been the 'girl next door' charmer but FFX-2 DiD away with that by giving her a complete makeover! Though a change in visage equals to a lot of GREAT DiD scenes and the artists have provided indeed! Rikku agrees as well!

Art by Mistereye

A piece I commissioned from GREAT-DUDE!

With an HD remix coming out of both games, it's a good thing that Rikku and Yuna have gotten their tastes of bondage and have been deemed worthy more than once their fruitless struggling! Sometimes a damsel speaks for itself and for sure Yuna is one of those that can 'mmmppphhhh' herself into great glory in her endeavors. Pictures are worth a thousand words as well and far better words than her song she sang in the Thunder Plains… I wish someone gagged her at that moment(love you Yuna!). Well… HD remix tomorrow! Next month is a special month as well! Who will be the Damsel of April?!

EDIT(I might just start doing this for edited works): 

Reptileye is the artist. Commissioner. Alternate version.

FFX and FFX-2 HD Remaster: "New Ending"

New Ending

Not that I didn't already have this game preordered in Amazon but, this makes it EVEN better. Sometime at the end of this year and I read somewhere it might be CLOSE to October.

"Balance and Ruin"

An acquaintance of mine from another forum sent me a link to this particular place: BuddyIris213. This person does amazing work with vintage art for the franchise of Final Fantasy. Some are better than others and I found myself enamored by FFVI's and FFX-2(which I will purchase soon enough). The quotes on some are better than art and some are enticing because of the art and the quote falls within the  caliber of mediocre or just plain insipid. FFVI's is:

"The nature of magic exists between balance and ruin."

While it may be simple to the naked eye, it still adorns a very deep and heart warming rhythm to it, especially fans of FFVI. With that said, I did some minor redecorating in my game room because of the arrival of this poster!

The Red

 

A Very minor change but enough to catch if one is attentive of it. And most likely, sooner than later there will be another that joins the fray! 

The Chrono Trigger OST

 

Music to my ears. Literally. Chrono Trigger is perhaps a testament of what Jrpgs used to be in regards to the core of their story. No other RPG (aside from FFVI) from the east has given a resounding story as jovial, as dramatic, and as engaging as Chrono Trigger (for me). Probably a big factor to the ambiance of the way the story is told is the music for sure. This was jrpg music was in its prime and by God, the nostalgia, the inspiration, the emotion that profusely pours from each track!!!!

It comes with 3 discs of rather cathartic tunes in my ears. In between the limbo of the past when I was young and playing this, and in the times when I was starting out to write and finding motivation, suffice to say, having this WHOLE playlist on my iTunes is AMAZING!

Again. Awesome to have on the Christmas List. What makes it even more awesome is that it was in my Christmas Stocking!

Marle's theme (ending and regular), Crono's, Frog's, victory fanfare, Secret of the Forest, Green Memories .... and so much more! I love this OST!!!!!