Track this topic | Email this topic | Print this topic

Alright, game complete. What follows is my review of what I just absorbed, in as fair and unbiased a manner as possible. It's no secret that I like this game, but what I will convey will be the facts, and just the facts.

I have four categories; Game Play, Story, Technical Aspects, and finally Bottom Line. Game play breaks down, well game play. Everything from atmosphere to pacing to combat and customization. Story includes the obvious, but also gets into character development and tone. Technical aspects includes the music and graphics, as well as things such as glitches and game breaks. Finally the bottom line is just that, the bottom line.

Game Play: Final Fantasy XIII strikes me as a very long tutorial with precious little free play opportunity. The linearity of the game takes away the feeling of actual enjoyment, and makes it seem like you are forced to watch and react over and over again. The bright spot here is the in-depth combat system, though it seems to be pulled straight from XI and XII, oft times feeling like a solo MMO experience. The paradigm system is a nice change to XII's roles, but it isn't quite perfected. The lack of a flee option and its replacement with the Retry button feels cheap and almost like this game is catered to the mindless. The lack of actual customization is a pain, and the fact that the Crystal grid is a pale imitation of a job system is obvious. The folks at Square Enix did a better job with Star Ocean than Final Fantasy and that does not bode well for the future of the series.

5/10

Story: The story is a little lopsided, and slow to develop. I don't like the fact that it feels like a retelling of so many Final Fantasies before it, however, most JRPG's tend to toe the line in that respect. The characters are actually very well executed, and with the exception of one voice actor seem to actually feel alive. While it may have seemed as if the game was forcing faux emotion down our throats in the beginning, that whole introductory series of events is further expanded upon and actually makes sense when all is said and done. The fact that I had to go looking for background information was not good, however, but I do like the other function of the Datalog, the enemy data.

6/10

Technical Aspects: Graphically this game is incredible, and that is to be expected given the length of the development, The music is new and different, and while the inclusion of a 'Theme song' doesn't sit well with most, it doesn't actually impact the game, for me at least. The lack of Fanfare is a problem, as this doesn't really feel like a Final Fantasy to me without it, but overall I like the music at large, It is typically epic and operatic, what we have come to expect from the series.

7/10

Bottom Line: This game is woefully average at everything except combat. It feels like Square Enix was experimenting with new ideas here, almost like the Junior Varsity got a shot to play in the State Finals. There are quite a few things which should have ended up on the cutting room floor, and some which should have been expanded on. This is Rental at best, unless you are a perfectionist who must own each numbered entry in the series, simply for personal reasons. Star Ocean was the superior game in my opinion, and the fact that this game is scheduled to have multiple spin-offs leads me to believe that they rushed this out just to create a buzz. It's a good RPG, just not worthy of the moniker attached.

6.5/10

This post has been edited by Nytecrawla on 17th March 2010 17:18

--------------------

This is a webcomic and gaming blog where I rant about nonsense. Enjoy.

I was a soldier, now I just play one in video games.

6.5 is acceptable, but I personally would give XIII a 7, B- or a C+. Just like The Crawla says, feels like an experiment more than anything. Remember how it went for Coca Cola went they changed their recipe?... Stick to the classic.

IMO

Gameplay : 6
Graphics: 9
Story: 3
Music: 4
Side Quest: 7 (Hunting and Weapon Upgrading)
Characters: 5
Enemies: 5

Overall: 7 / 10


This post has been edited by SaffireWeapon on 17th March 2010 18:45

--------------------

PS3 tag: TipoDLuffy

"...quite possibly the greatest game ever made"

How long did it take you two to complete, roughly? And did you finish all the extra sidequests and such?

Could you give more detail on the open-world stuff at the end? To be honest that's mostly what I'm interested in at this point as I'm deciding whether to rent or not. It's not a question of money (for once) but rather whether I should spend time on this or something else. If the story doesn't pay off for me then I'd want to feel like I'd been playing towards some sort of goal, even if it is just to fight some optional bosses.

On the whole, good review Nytecrawla, thanks for sharing.

This post has been edited by sweetdude on 17th March 2010 19:25

--------------------

Scepticism, that dry rot of the intellect, had not left one entire idea in his mind.

Me on the Starcraft.

It took me about 36 hours to do everything I could without using a walkthrough. I managed to finish 12 of the sidequests, but I am sure there are plenty more out there. The game opens itself wide up when you hit the surface of pulse, and the enemies are of varying difficulty, from Behemoth Kings to the Massive Adamantoise (which killed my party by stepping on them roughly 3 seconds after the fight started the first time), so if you do start exploring be wary of enemies that look too tough.

There are some awesome side quests at the end, and once you get into hunting down the marks (just like XII) it gets pretty distracting. Once you find the town, you have the option of voyaging back out into the fields, and it becomes a proper exploration type of game, very similar to X and XII in that respect.

--------------------

This is a webcomic and gaming blog where I rant about nonsense. Enjoy.

I was a soldier, now I just play one in video games.

There is a total of 60 Hunting Marks. The rewards vary from components that are needed to upgrade your weapons and catalyst that transform your weapons into more powerful weapons. For example a Master Gladius transforms into Helter-Skelter when you apply a Uranite component. The Helter-Skelter transforms into one of many variations of Omega Weapon, Lightning's ultimate Weapon. The weapon upgrade mini game reminds me a lot of the Materia leveling up system. Each weapon has the potential to become an Ultimate Weapon, the problem is that the Ultimate Weapon will gain the skills of the original weapon. The Lionheart > Ultima Weapon > Omega Weapon is the best sword to upgrade to Lightning's ultimate weapon as it gains the Quick Stagger ability. The Organyx > Apocalypse > Omega Weapon has the highest attack power with 920 plus the Iron Strike ability, but it is the sword with the lowest ATB charge rate.

The game is linear at first, but after Chapter 10 the Final Fantasy XIII experience changes. You can choose any character you want, apply any role you feel is best for your playing style, and once you finish the game that is when everything becomes available. Once you beat the final boss you download the end game file and you will appear at the final save spot where you can travel back to Gran Pulse, where much of the game's sidequest takes place. Also, once you beat the game, that's when power leveling begins.

This post has been edited by SaffireWeapon on 18th March 2010 01:41

--------------------

PS3 tag: TipoDLuffy

"...quite possibly the greatest game ever made"

Quote

The game is linear at first, but after Chapter 10 the Final Fantasy XIII experience changes. You can choose any character you want, apply any role you feel is best for your playing style, and once you finish the game that is when everything becomes available. Once you beat the final boss you download the end game file and you will appear at the final save spot where you can travel back to Gran Pulse, where much of the game's sidequest takes place. Also, once you beat the game, that's when power leveling begins.

Unfortunately, this game waits until Chapter 10 out of 13 to do what many RPGs do from the very beginning, or at least earlier into the game. And even then, the sidequest material is lackluster compared to many RPGs.

--------------------

//www.rpgmaker.net/
We make games. Period.

Exactly Tryscal, but I guess that is what Square Enix was aiming for, not been able to do everything from the beggining. I guess they wanted the fans to enjoy a good story, but the problem is the story is poop.

I will enjoy this game until the fun endures and the graphics continue to blow me away. The sad truth is that once I'm done with the Hunting Missions, I'll never play or think about XIII again.

--------------------

PS3 tag: TipoDLuffy

"...quite possibly the greatest game ever made"

Quote

I guess they wanted the fans to enjoy a good story

I don't get the mindset that wanting fans to enjoy a story you're telling means that you have to remove of options from gameplay. It's like wanting someone to enjoy a movie, and in order to do so, you duct tape them to a chair and give them a bucket to pee in.

This post has been edited by Tryscal The Great on 18th March 2010 18:16

--------------------

//www.rpgmaker.net/
We make games. Period.

I agree with most of what FBM said.

After playing another five hours or so I am realizing that I really do like having a linear game that opens up in the second half (or last third, or whatever). The fact that I like this style of presentation so much could be a big factor towards my liking.

I'm definitely seeing a lot of strategy. A new, fast-paced type, but definitely interesting and fun seeing as it's different.

I'm definitely enjoying FFXIII and feeling much more connected to the game than what I felt for FFXII.

--------------------

Currently Playing : Final Fantasy V
Most Recently Beat : Elder Scrolls: Skyrim
Favorite Game : Final Fantasy X

The newest CoNcast is up! Have a listen!

Quote (SaffireWeapon @ 17th March 2010 20:38)

You can choose any character you want, apply any role you feel is best for your playing style

My problem with this revelation is that, once i found out. i chose the most balanced team for me. lightning was a power hitter as a commando, so she stayed that way. snow was a good tank as a ravager/sentinel combo, so he stayed that way. hope was a good ravager/medic combo, so he stayed that way. the party choice really boiled down to who i used the most, and since you hardly played as sasz, vanille, or fang, they were dumped. and with the choose any role thing, i dont buy it. with the amount of CP im getting in chapter 10 is no where near enough to even think about earning a 4th class, especially when i get better rewards for staying on the tracks i was on. each node to start a new class costs 3000 CP to unlock, eventually getting to upwards of 21,000 CP. and that 3000 would get me a HP +10. why do that when for 6000 on a track i was on, i could get HP +100? the starting a new class thing isnt that great when its introduced, although i can see the value of it later.

and another thing that's starting to tick me off. the paradigm limits. i know its a minute detail, but i like having complete and total control of my battle party, i dont want a handful of useful formations. i want the game to realize that, yes, sometimes i do need to halt everything and heal, and sometimes i need to use a commando, ravager, medic combo, or commando, medic, sentinel, or comando, sentinel, ravager, and so on. the small amount of combinations that ive made are outstanding and have gotten me out of some tight situations, however the fact of the matter is that, especially with this battle system, the fight evolves constantly and what may have worked last fight may not this time; though its the same enemies. having only a couple combinations of paradigms at a time feels, and i know im overusing this argument, unnecessarily limiting on the player.

its a big blow to my ego when i cant control every little bit of my party at any given time the way i could in past games.

--------------------

Aujourdhui a commence avec toi.

Mmmm well I'm on Chapter 10 so far and I've enjoyed the grinding aspect of it really. Everyone is level 3 of their main skills, level 1 of their others. I've got some second Tier weapons already, everyone else is maxed on their tier 1 weapon.

But if I do recall, wasn't there gonna be like other parts of the game? Like FFXIII Versus or somesuch? XD

Give it a chapter or so and you guys will be able to grind it out just fine for those new classes. The difficulty really skyrockets once you get to chapter 11, and just gets harder from there. It will catch you off guard if you aren't ready for it.

--------------------

This is a webcomic and gaming blog where I rant about nonsense. Enjoy.

I was a soldier, now I just play one in video games.

Quote (Nytecrawla @ 20th March 2010 09:16)

Give it a chapter or so and you guys will be able to grind it out just fine for those new classes. The difficulty really skyrockets once you get to chapter 11, and just gets harder from there. It will catch you off guard if you aren't ready for it.

thats a relief. i do eventually want to get secondary classes, but i really dont want to grind for massive amounts of CP...at least until i need to

--------------------

Aujourdhui a commence avec toi.

My cousin said that the gameplay was really different and there's no exploration. This appears to be a very different game from the others.

--------------------

Praise Be To Helix!

Quote (Sasquatch @ 20th March 2010 13:47)

But if I do recall, wasn't there gonna be like other parts of the game? Like FFXIII Versus or somesuch? XD

FFXIII Versus is related very vaguely to FFXIII, I think they said it was set in the same Universe or something?? They've announced three titles so far, FFXIII, Versus and Agito, but they're not direct sequels or completely related I think.

Just started playing XIII, I also get the idea like you end up much more inclined to just use Lightning, Snow and Hope throughout the game, thats what my sister says anyway.
The battle systems fun, but I really do enjoy controlling all my characters more. But, I get why they did it, and it works.

--------------------

*Sigh*....Times are tough

Quote (Sasquatch @ 20th March 2010 13:47)

Just started playing XIII, I also get the idea like you end up much more inclined to just use Lightning, Snow and Hope throughout the game, thats what my sister says anyway.

I don't understand why people are saying this because I've been using Lightning, Sahz, and Fang in my party for as long as I've had them all available

This post has been edited by FallingHeart on 22nd March 2010 16:55

--------------------

"We're not tools of the government or anyone else. Fighting... fighting was the only thing I was ever good at, but at least I always fought for what I believed in." - Frank Yeager (a.k.a. Grey Fox)

Yeah I've been grinding and free-roaming in Chapter 11 for a while now, at first everything was hard but now I can take out most monsters without too much issue (tho the King Behemoths can be painful) >>

Of course you also get the missions to do, which adds a lot of sidequests, and trying to explore all the areas seems to be rather fun too so...yeah so far so good in my eyes.

Lots of good reviews here. I just bought this earlier this week and because of work am only about an hour or so in. It seems that I have a LONG way to go before I get to fully explore the game...
At this point it's still just gorgeous enough for me to be amazed with the look of everything to forgive it's shortcomings. We'll see how long this lasts. It's nice to know what to expect though.

I finally finished the game, it took me 50 hours to take my main party's available crystarium (Stage 9) and their three main roles to the max, as well as mastering the weapons I was using (Lightning - Ultima Weapon, Hope - Eagletalon, Fang - Venus Gospel). Now that Crystarium Stage 10 is available I'm going to finish the remaining Hunts and begin my quest for the TRAPEZOHEDRONS needed to transform my weapons into Ultimate Weapons.

This game might not have lots of exploration, but there is lots of experimentation.

I miss Uematsu

--------------------

PS3 tag: TipoDLuffy

"...quite possibly the greatest game ever made"

Just thought I'd share Yahtzee's review of Final Fantasy 13.

Zero Puntuation: Final Fantasy XIII

I pretty sure this isn't a spoiler, but I don't think he liked it.

--------------------

Praise Be To Helix!

Spoilers below up to the beginning of disc 2.

I'm finally able to play this thanks to a friend who bought this game on holiday, having never played an FF before. It's fun to see what a non-FF player makes of it. In a nutshell he doesn't like Hope and calls Vanille jailbait, especially when she shows the tattoo on her bum, but enjoys the gameplay and the story. The game's oppressive linearity doesn't bother him at all. In that respect I think SE did well in appealing to new players, or at least not putting them off.

This game reminds me a lot of Resident Evil 5. With Res 5, the game had basically ripped off Gears of War but without some crucial things like moving and shooting at the same time and shooting without aiming. This means that the zombies have an advantage straight off the bat and the gameplay is a lot poorer than it should've been. It's not scary like the devs argued, it's just annoying. If you're going to make an actiony shooting game, go through with it all the way. FFXIII falls into the same trap by trying to be an action game but at the same time resiliently holding on to some FF strategy factors, like a menu and an ATB, which is just ludicrous when the enemies fight quickly and can beat you to a pulp while you're looking around your menu for something to hit it with. Like Res 5, FFXIII tried to be something it wasn't, and didn't follow the new direction to its end. The battles would've been a lot better if the characters could move around and had buttons assigned to attacks. That's an action game. There's very little strategy in FFXIII but its pace is good, so the game should've played to that strength instead of giving us the illusion of strategy in what is essentially a button-bashing beat-em-up.

I'm a huge advocate of FFXII but I know a lot of people aren't, so I won't go into the many reasons why this game is taking three jumps back after XII's two steps forward. It just is.

Another quick point is that FFXIII is the first FF to actually have no excuse for not having a two-player option. There is someone following you the entire time outside battles and battles could easily have been split-screen. Such a simple addition would've made a world of difference.

Character-wise, I relate the most to Snow who gets blamed for everything that happens to other people, even why it's obviously not his fault, and punched by every woman he meets after a certain amount of time with them, and also because he loses the love of his life. Good stuff. Vanille is apparently the retrospective narrator, so I'm assuming she's the only survivor at the end, or, as I like to think, she's doing a sort of Dr Manhattan and moving through time itself. It would suit her character.

I haven't played through the story enough to know... well anything that's going on. I don't know what Ragnarok is or why I have to kill it, I don't know what Eden really is and why I have to kill it, (I know that somebody in the writing staff doesn't like FFVIII) I don't know where I am, occasionally I don't know the characters when they act in an inconsistent way -- Lightning might punch Hope next -- and I certainly don't know where I'm going. The characters have this amazing drive to get to the next screen, saying things like "come on we have to hurry!" or whatever, yet they've not explained where they're going. As far as I understand I'm on Pulse, and we need to keep going forward down a road to save the world and not die from our curse. The team has split up, I can't remember why, I think Lightning threw her toys out the pram and buggered off. Currently I have no motivation to continue because I keep getting the impression that we're all going the wrong way. For all I know I'm leading everyone deeper into Pulse to an optional boss and the main story takes place about 2 hours back down the other road.

Now a word about our new amazing graphics. IMO the characters are designed poorly apart from Lightning and Sahz to some extent, especially when his silhouette looks a bit like a Napoleonic admiral. It's widely accepted that this game look good, well I say that's not completely true. I've been through four different tilesets for far, probably one for each chapter, and that's exactly the problem, they're obviously tilesets. The scenery is remarkably boring for such sharp graphics. FFIX had beautiful oiled paintings for its backgrounds, all unique and some were wonderful to sit and look at. Here it's just caves or roads that are well rendered but boring. There's never been a part where I've stood still and enjoyed what I've been looking at. I've stopped a lot and had a look around, but each time it was just the generic background of whatever tileset I was in. That's weak. I thought this game took years to make because the visuals were so impressive. They're really really not. Having said that some of the monsters look impressive, none so far as impressive as FFXII I must add, where Ixion the hunt looks like some kind of futuristic holy horse sent back in time to save us all from blandness, but I'm hoping that will come at the end.

The music has been great so far. I particularly liked the slow thudding guitar and soft wailing in the background in that scrapyard level. The battle music is cheese and I don't have a lot of love for it, but the boss music is excellent, even if it doesn't fit with fighting a massive robot mushroom like the last time I heard it.

For now, the game's strong in its music, pace and characters such as Lightning when she isn't having a strop or punching somebody. The weakness is in the scenery, the simplicity and linearity of upgrading, and the rejection of any explanation of anything for me to understand what the game's about. I don't know enough about the main story yet, on disc 2 of 3, to make any comment about it other than it's still alien to me. We'll see in due course.

This post has been edited by sweetdude on 22nd April 2010 00:14

--------------------

Scepticism, that dry rot of the intellect, had not left one entire idea in his mind.

Me on the Starcraft.

Quote

I miss Uematsu 

That was one of my biggest complaints too. There were a couple of songs from FFXIII that I really enjoyed: the main theme and the battle theme, for example. But I felt like a lot of the other songs were less than interesting, especially since they seemed to be repeated over the course of several areas. A big downer, in my book.

--------------------

Currently Playing : Final Fantasy V
Most Recently Beat : Elder Scrolls: Skyrim
Favorite Game : Final Fantasy X

The newest CoNcast is up! Have a listen!

Wow I can't wait to go and buy this game. Its going to be awesome! Probably. I just hope Versus xiii will be good, it looks so beautiful. Does anyone have any idea when it comes out?

--------------------

Without darkness there can be no light, so how can darkness be truly evil?

Think have played FF XIII enough now to give the game a score and a thought of view.

Gameplay : 8
Graphics: 10
Story: 6
Music: 7
Side Quest: 7
Characters: Great Sazh Serah Lighting Hope Fang
Terrible Snow Vanille
7
Enemies: 7

Overall: 8/10

Would give it a 9/10 if you could control all of the party members and not just one and if Vanille was never created. At stages Vanille acted like she was a six year old .Eiko from FFIX was more mature and had more intelligence than her and she's five. -___-

FF XIII = much better and a huge improvement from FF XII. Is happy.

This post has been edited by ZidaneTribal on 22nd May 2010 03:59

--------------------

Currently playing Chrono Trigger !!
Currently looking forward to Don't Know.

I'll buy this when it drops in price. No point in splashing out when it's gonna be about 50/50 whether I enjoy it or not.

Maybe I should just search for a copy of FF9 for my PS1.

So, based on how many times I read comments from people who absolutely hated this game (including re-reading threads like this one now!), I waited a long time to get it, even though I was initially extremely excited when they first announced it would be available on a console I owned. I picked it up on Black Friday of 2010 for only $14 new, and due to buying a house and then finding out about our baby immediately after, I barely picked it up for almost a year. I finally finished the main quest today, and have done about 2/3 of the marks.

I've come to the realization over the years that I think I'm a bit easier to please than many gamers. As pessimistic as I am about life in general, I find that I can find something to really appreciate about most of the games I play - maybe that's because I look harder for those things given that I don't get to play as many games as most of you.

That said, the more I think about it, the less I feel like I have to search too hard for things that I liked about Final Fantasy XIII. I know most of you probably won't agree, and I urge you to tell me so. I probably won't argue because it doesn't matter to me. I have to admit that like most people, it did take a good six to eight hours to get into the game and feel like I knew what I was dealing with. Unlike a lot of people in this thread, though, at that point a switch flipped in my head, and I feel like I really got behind the game and really started to enjoy it a lot.

Now, keep in mind that the last main-series game I played was X (which I also enjoyed, though in truth I think I might just prefer XIII overall - I'd need time to think about that some more, if I care to). So, maybe XII did some of the stuff I liked and did it better. I don't know, sorry. What I did like was all of these things (spoilered even though I really don't expect people to get this far in this thread and not have played the game through):

Possible spoilers: highlight to view

• Yes, it was absolutely pretty. Even on 360, though I remember hearing it wasn't quite as sharp there.
• Beyond being simply pretty, I thought the art direction was pretty good overall. I didn't think Nomura's character designs were as ridiculous as they were in X, for instance. I also really enjoyed the steampunk-y nature of much of Gran Pulse, and loved the design of a lot of the creatures overall, especially bosses like Barthandelus, any of the Woodwraiths, most of the Cie'th, and Orphan too. The scale of some of the creatures, like Adamantoise and Titan, was also impressive to me.
• Honestly, turn-based battles have gotten a bit stale for me, probably from having played the older games so many times among them. I still enjoy the turn-based games, but I feel that the departure in XIII was actually well-done and a lot of fun once you figured it out. I have really enjoyed talking paradigms with people in chat as I've played the game more and more.
• I really quite liked the characters in the end. Snow, maybe, not so much, but over time the rest definitely grew on me, even Vanille and Hope, who a lot of people seem to dislike.
• The upgrade system, even though it certainly had its faults, was entertaining. Among Squenix games, I still think the first Parasite Eve had the best upgrade system, but this wasn't bad.
• The plot got much better about halfway through, around the first time you meet Dysley. The Fal'cies' motives were, at face value, interesting to me and had a slightly different dynamic than other Final Fantasies, I thought, even in other games that had nihilistic villains.

I certainly don't think it's a perfect game. The voice acting suffered due to the lip sync (I believe someone mentioned "anime gasps" here earlier or in another thread). Learning about the world via the datalog was clumsy, too, especially for a world that relies so heavily on its own jargon - I spent the first several hours not quite clear on Fal'cie versus l'Cie and Pulse l'Cie and Cie'th and good Lord what else. Similarly, the tutorials were garbage - I still don't have any clue as to whether I was upgrading things the "right" way, or why components that are really only good for selling off for Gil weren't better marked. The learning curve for which paradigms to use in certain situations was pretty sharp, too, and I'm really not surprised that so many people note the difficulty spiking suddenly - I think this also might go back to the issue of poor tutorials.

I can completely relate to this game being polarizing, and I don't mean to diminish the opinions of those who simply hated the game. For a brief time, I wasn't sure which side of the divide I'd be on. At the end, though, I find that I absolutely loved it - it's probably the FF I've loved the most on first playthrough since FFT, when all is said and done. I really want to get my hands on 13-2 now.



--------------------

"To create something great, you need the means to make a lot of really bad crap." - Kevin Kelly

Why aren't you shopping AmaCoN?

Like R51, I too waited quite some time to get the game. I actually went into it with a lot of optimism, as I don't usually let reviews and negative opinions get into my head much before playing a game to see if I like it myself.

When I began, everything was a little confusing, but I thought the battle system was pretty fun and the characters made me more curious about the story. Now I'm about 15 hours in and though the game is a pretty fun game... It isn't a Final Fantasy. It feels like Enix and Square invented their own separate game series and decided they would replace Final Fantasy with it. I'm sure the things I'll mention have been beat to death in this thread (and all over the internet for that matter), so I'll save the tedious complaining.

All I can say is that I would like this game if it weren't called Final Fantasy, but the name of the series puts me in the mood to play a certain type of game... and this one fails pretty miserably.

I haven't finished it yet, and I will make sure I do before I pass too harsh of a judgement on it, as plenty of things could change for the better before the end, but as it stand right now, I've got half a mind to call it the worst game in the series..

Where I'm at right now, I feel like Squenix made some characters and a story and then chunked me on a one way path and said "spend 15 hours walking in the same direction, control a few fights, and we'll do the rest for you."

This post has been edited by Sephiroth on 14th May 2012 17:12

--------------------

Climhazzard is the timeless evil robot who runs some of the cool stuff at CoN (mostly logging chat, since there are no quizzes at the moment), all the while watching and waiting for his moment to take over the world. -Tiddles