Welcome to the Powet Top 5, where we explore the top (and bottom) 5 items we think are relevant to any of a variety of topics that span the imagination. Sit back, read, and respond

Everyone knows that what Capcom and SNK are to fighting, EA is to sports, and Epic is to shooters, Squaresoft, now called Square-Enix (you know, since merging with Enix), is to RPGs. Or at least they used to be at a time. While their most recognizable title is Final Fantasy, they have created other classic RPG franchises. This article celebrates 5 of them. By the way, this list is specifically focused on Squaresoft and not Square-Enix, just in case you’re wondering why Dragon Quest or Illusion of Gaia isn’t on here.

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Romancing Saga 3 is the sixth game in the Saga series. While the Saga series is quite popular in Japan, only a handful of games in the series have made it over to the US. The three game boy games were re-christened Final Fantasy Legend, while the Super Nintendo games (including this one) weren’t released over here at all (of course, I have it on good authority that a translation exists somewhere on the internet) outside of a poorly-received Playstation 2 remake of Romancing Saga 1. It’s a shame too, because despite its differences to Square’s flagship RPG, Final Fantasy fans in the U.S would eat this up.
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Injuries in video games tend to be minor annoyances rather than the game-stopping events they should be. But wouldn’t having to heal from actual injuries be a sure way to kill gaming fun? Vinnk and Sean discuss how injury has been taken out of games with the advent of armor and shielding, and on the other side of the spectrum games that are all about healing. And somewhere in between, there’s the worst offender of the blurry line between life, death, and severe crippling injury: RPGs. Also, we give out copious amounts of Phoenix Downs.

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Yes, I know I’m asking for heat by covering what is perhaps the least loved Final Fantasy title since 7. However, despite it’s linearity, the game’s story is every bit as epic as the previous entries in the series. Final Fantasy XIII takes place within a place known as Coccon, a sky city which floats above a larger world known as pulse. The mysterious gods who keep Cocoon afloat have the ability to mark various humans, making them into thier servants. These servants, called L’Cie are given a task to complete. If they do, they turn into crystals. If they don’t, they become mindless monsters. A cruel government purges citizens who are suspected to be L’Cie, supposedly sending them to the Pulse. In actuality, they are being killed off in mass exterminations. The main character in this story is a woman named Lightning, whose sister was one of the L’Cie. In true Final Fantasy fashion, you run into other people, each with their own stories and complex relationships.
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After a recent performance of Video Games Live, Sean and Vinnk talk about the merits of bleeps and bloops, the chiptunes musicians who still love them, hidden music in Nintendo’s titles (including one hidden for the last nine years in the GameCube menu screen), and the more symphonic offerings of the 16-bit age and beyond.

[Listen to the episode after the jump…!]

If you’re a regularly Poweteer and have perused our forum in the past few months, you might know that a few of the Powet staff will be attending this coming year’s MAGfest X – a convention for gamers and lovers of gaming music.

Well, we just got one more awesome reason to attend the festival this year. Father of the Final Fantasy music genre, Nobou Uematsu will be the featured guest at MAGfest this year, along with his newest band, Earthbound Papas. (since The Black Mages disbanded some time ago)

Uematsu joins a very wide variety of guests to appear at this year’s MAGfest, along with the likes of AVGN, ScrewAttack, Extra Credits and a slew of other guests and bands. (sorry, no Minibosses this year) So if you’ve got a little time in early January and are in the Baltimore area, check this out and look us up!

Can a movie based on a video game ever be any good? If their Rotten Tomatoes scores are to be believed, these films are never critical darlings. Some find fans in niche places, but many are just… you know… BAD. Vinnk and SeanOrange plumb their memories of video game movies to find out if either of them belong to the “so-SO-bad-but-I-still-love-it-even-though-geez-it-sucks” club!

Direct Link: Famicom Dojo Podcast 07: Video Game Movies

Check out the show notes to see the trailers for these films, JewWario’s Mario Monologues, and more thoughts at FamicomDojo.TV:
http://famicomdojo.tv/podcast/7

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Since the alphabet is the building block of our language, the Powet Alphabet is the building block of what makes us geeks.

The Kingdom Hearts franchise is a series of video games which varies in quality from amazing to barely playable. Let’s look at the series at it’s best and worst.

The concept was a weird one that didn’t seem to mesh at all. Take some Disney characters, throw them in with a bunch of Final Fantasy characters, toss in a few Keyblades and see what comes up. The result, it would seem, was something gamers really took to.

Though the game was Japanese first, it included a ton of Disney characters. The concept in the first game on the PlayStation 2 was basically that each new world was based on a new Disney movie which brought it’s characters into the fold as well. Even amongst the Disney characters the range of types of movies varied greatly, but they still managed to coexist in the rich world that was created quite well.

The game’s Hero is accompanied by Donald Duck, Goofy and Jiminy Cricket. Disney themed worlds are based on Alice in Wonderland, Hercules, Tarzan, Winnie the Pooh, Aladdin, Pinnochio, The Little Mermaid, The Nightmare Before Christmas and Peter Pan. Beyond these worlds other characters from other Disney properties make appearances. We see Mickey, Minnie, the Brooms from Fantasia, Merlin, 101 Dalmatians, the Fairy Godmother and Cinderella, Aurora and Maleficent, Snow White, Belle and the Beast, Simba, Dumbo, Bambi, Mushu, Chip and Dale and Huey, Dewey and Louis.

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