I wonder if they are going to end Monday Night the way they used to end WCW… fade to black before the last match ends. Then have to tune in next week just to find out what the hell happened.

Once more into the breach, eh Spoony?

I second this. Chikara is a great wrestling company. It's like comic books mixed with wrestling. Hiding in Plain Sight was a great show.

Impact is going to be so goddamn painful now that RVD will be there, cause the mark that I am for the dude will make me watch and I'll have to be strapped in like Malcolm McDowell in A Clockwork Orange to get through it. It's like the last year of WCW but with the WWE's unemployment line. And damn, I feel bad for Nigel McGuinness, two PPV matches in a row that were match of the year quality and he gets shit for it.

And there's the FF13 commercial behind me, a goddamn girly POP SONG to promote this epic horse shit?! I think you might be right on Fantasy fanboys starting to give up. I lost it after #9, I had problems with 8, I shit on #7 and what it's become. For me it was swords and castles and magic and “who needs D&D!” type feeling when I played and now everything in the game is clean and pretty and ornamented, it's Fancy, not Fantasy. 12 was pig shit to me, last thing they kept from the old games was the combat system, and they chucked it out for a pretend-MMORPG battle system, fuck that noise. And now FF13 doesn't look fantasy in the least bit! It looks like a fucking sci-fi game, I've seen modern Phantasy Star games more like Final Fantasy than that! I've seriously given up on the series. #6 is the pinnacle, never got better and Spoony, you know this true, I know you respect a man that can give a steam locomotive a flying brainbuster. Since then they ditched the fantasy for sci-fi, that's where I bow out.

I still count myself as a Final Fantasy fan, but the series is having problems right now. Just for background on my opinion, VII is my favorite, X my second, VIII sucks the root and VI I haven't finished but I agree was an excellent game. I didn't play XI at all because I wasn't into MMOs at the time. XII… I didn't hate it, but it didn't really feel like a Final Fantasy game. XI's MMO influence was all too obvious in the combat system, the summons weren't the familiar faces and I didn't care for the character designs much. I don't mind the series obsession with girly men, but man does Sqenix need a better wardrobe department. As for XIII, it's sounds all too much like a design-by-votepoll game. They cherry-picked the elements they thought the public liked best in previous games and said “There you go, there's your game. What, you want a world map and exploration? Stiff shit”. Seriously, it suffers X's main flaw of feeling like one massive railroading. Yeah, I have pessimism about it. Yet the saddest thing is: I'll still buy it. God help me.

I got bored and left :(

It is not a WWE hall of fame ring, it is the wrestling hall of fame ring, which is in Las Vegas. WWE hall of fame is a plaque thats it not a ring.

Final Fantasy XIII gets hate for the wrong reasons.Its a fairly linear game,just like X was,yet everyone hates XIII for it.

It has pretty good graphics and story,while it does take you by the hand too long and unlocks major gameplay features pretty late,its not that bad.

I hated XII for its Gambit-System.If i want to play it,i want to control the characters,not let them fight themselves.It seemed really frantic and confusing to me,especially the Superboss was just atrociously designed to piss me off.

Hell yeah spoonyman! Youd be a hell of alot better writer than russo.

I loved Final Fantasy 7, liked 8, wasn't a fan of 9, liked 10, really liked 12. I'm looking forward to 13, a series has to evolve and change while keeping some nods and winks or else it gets stale. If the Persona series stayed the same we wouldn't have had the groundbreaking Persona 3 or the vast improvements in Persona 4.

The link's still there.

Pope should be getting a god damn jesus push but OH NO WE'RE TNA HERE HAVE SOME OLD MEN

Here's a list of Facepalm-worthy moments I gathered from last night
-Hogan called AJ/Flair Jabronis
-Bischoff taking potshots at XFL
-Jarrett gets humiliated and buried AGAIN
-Anderson cuts promo on Angle being injury-prone (The irony is palpable although the impersonation was rather funny)
-Angelina Love has a “photoshoot” with NO lighting equipment (How low budget is this show?)
-The “Hall Rules” sign returns
-Obvious Sign Plant Man is Obvious

I have no idea how the hardcore TNA fans make it through each week

…is it wrong of me to want a gif of Spoony flailing like a girl around the 30 minute mark?

No… it is more right than any of us can possibly know.

Spoony, I've lived in Texas for over a decade, and I've NEVER heard anyone use the term “ugly” for being “mean”.

What kind of contract do these wrestlers have anyway? I mean, they had a parking lot brawl last week because of contracts so they all exist, and yet, they can get the employees into the ring at any time, and the multi-million dollar wrestlers doing jobs any high school drop-out is qualified to do. Apparently, the contracts are just a single line: “I will do anything you say!”

I'm from the south, and have lived there my whole life, and I've never heard anyone say “You being ugly?” to mean “You being mean?”. Spoony, you should call shenanigans on that.

His butler actually ;)

Wrestling is done… at least to me.

I read the comments posted about final fantasy and a lot said FF8 is good! Can't belive that! One of my friend ease me into JRPG with final fantasy. Got 7, 8 and 9. I started with is favorite. Guess witch one! Yeah 8 .For many people, it was there first and they grow sentimental about it. But event he said it was a bad choice! FF9 on the other and has a clichee story but was FUN! The caracters was still emo yet they wasn't all in your face about it. (except for one scene but, yeah)
The systems was like in ff4. AND PEOPLE (or troll, don't know yet) BASH IT!!! To me, it like loving getting punch it the face vs not! I completed ALL the game i own but ff8 and i still got the strategy guide and my save. (Right after the ragnarock landing) I Keep all of this as a memento as to never EVER LISTEN TO FANBOY ABOUT ANYTHING!

i actually didn't realize how bad Final Fantasy 8 was until i saw Spoony rip it a new one. Then i agreed with everything he said about it.

but anyway yea this has NWO written all over it again. And if it didn't work the first time why do they think it'll work this time?
and yes enough with the damn talking and effing wrestle!

I'd say most of the crying over Final Fantasy 13 came when the announcement of a 360 port came. I think my biggest issue is that you can only control one character at a time. For me that kills some of the strategy because the computer will end up casting spells or using abilities that I never would waste my time with. I'm not freaking out over the game being “linear” because many of the Final Fantasy titles were fairly linear. I think with the basic plot that I've heard these choices make sense in the game.

I think the biggest problem is the Final Fantasy fan base has grown to the point where it is impossible to please. I think you just have to ignore the idiocy of the hard core fanboys and just enjoy the games, if you don't like them move on.

I still can't get over this Hulk Lantern business.

Keep laughing everytime I see or hear Samoa Joe got kidnapped by ninjas. Thats not a good sign when i'm laughing at the stupidness of the stortlines.

To be honest, watching you rant and rave is much more entertaining. If something is good, its good, period, but if something is bad, there are soooo many ways to butcher it.

Yeah i didn't much care for 12 or 8. I think 9 was brilliant and is my second favorite after 6. I don't understand why that one gets so much hate. But I personally believe the hate for 9 and love of 8 gave us the shit of 12.

TNA is banished to the BLAG-OLE! Until it puts on a good show and rolls a 7 or an 8 on one piece of dice!

Jees, I'm from Arkansas and I didn't pick up on the ugly comment.

Just more proof that people who name themselves after regions are destined to be hur dur.

That whole ninja kidnapping thing is stupid but sooooo hilarious!

RE: Your Final Fantasy comments…With FFXII, Square lost both their main FF director and music guy, so a lot of people complained that the artistic direction wasn't “FF enough” or whatever. I didn't hate the game by any means, but I can't bring myself to play it again. Now people are complaining that FFXIII is way too linear or whatever, but really I prefer linearity if it means I don't get hopelessly lost like I did in XII.

Final Fantasy XIII will suck, and I don't care. I haven't touched Final Fantasy since that abomination called X-2. What I have seen of FFXII is that it's definitely not a Final Fantasy game. FFVI and VII were the best with a solid story, well developed characters and a working battle system. FFVIII was somehow broken, the story was weak, the characters complete morons and the gameplay was not really enjoyable, still it's not the worst Final Fantasy. FFIX was better, I liked the characters, even though the character development seemed to stop for several characters in the middle of disc 2, which was pretty lame. The story was good though, but got confusing in the end. I have no idea what that last boss was, and why you had to fight it after beating the evil transvestite. Yes, very confusing.
FFX was a step down, the gameplay was weaker, I missed the world map, the battles were not enjoyable, and the characters not that interresting, however it had a good story, one of the best in the series (that was completely ruined by that pile of shit called X-2).

Is it me or does Hulk's story arc of wanting to go back to the ring sounds like a Rocky sequel?

I would've expected the Hulk to enter the ring to the Rocky theme!

Thank you for this, another really enjoyable vlog, just a shame you missed the first match, it was like a four-way tag match, nothing that important, but it WAS, ya know, WRESTLING. lol

As for Final Fantasy, I STILL haven't completed 12 because I just don't care enough. The characters didn't grab me, the story didn't grab me and make me want to see what happens next and suffer through the combat system that just is NOT Final Fantasy. What IS wrong with a JRPG playing like a JRPG? I don't WANT Final Fantasy: The Pretending To Be An MMO, I want Final Fantasy: The Fucking JRPG. I liked all previous titles, save for the MMO one, which I do not count, and the GC ones that I can't play, because they were what the title promised, Final Fantasy games. I LOVED how 9 felt like a really classic one too, I think the series needed that blast from the past and I know I wouldn't mind if they'd gone with more settings like that. 10 was pretty good, storyline was what it was, but at least I cared about the characters and there WAS a story. Hell, I even liked X-2 despite it's flaws. The Job system was VERY nicely done IMO. I was looking forward to 12 like a motherfucker and I got it the day I could (1 day before official release here, as I recall) and right from the start… I just was not that impressed or into it. It was okay… but that's it. I didn't really care that much about the characters or what was going on. The action didn't compel me. Lack of random battles, okay, that's not a bad thing, but just… It just didn't do it for me. I'd wish 13 will be different, but I'm not getting it 'till I know a lot more about it. Haven't quite cared enough to get my hands on all the info yet, not after 12.

SPOONY! DUDE!
that was a mistake! You do not say you like FF12! xD
Actually this kinda gave you a point in my book after losing one for the 1 line in the first and the last episode of ff8
“and it didn't even get really bad till FFX”
^it has the best characters (you can't bojectively bring up ANY FF with better characters) and IMO, the best story :p

I have tried to watch TNA so many times, but like what Spoony has said, for a company that claims they are total non stop action, they really don't live up to thier name.

Regarding Final Fantasy, I'm a huge geek and have played almost every last one of them (excluding Final Fantasy III and Final Fantasy XI). The one that I hated mosted was Final Fantasy II, just a bad story line, characters I didn't care for, a odd job system, just nothing I cared for.

However, Final Fantasy IV is a classic, V was great simply for it's job classes and the ability to mix and match skills, VI had an epic story line, VII while not perfect had memorible characters, great dialouge and a soild story, VIII was a love story. That's all there was to it, with lots of plot holes and a confusing battle system. My personal second worst final fantasy. Final Fantasy IX was a huge rebound. Yes, a tad bit on the cartoon side, but soild story. It was just a huge nod to the old school final fantasy style, which I liked. Also, they had a MUCH more simple battle system and how to learn skills, it was simple like Final Fantasy VII.

Final Fantasy X, I will admit, when I first started playing it, I thought I'd hate it. However, by the concuslion I did end up enjoying the over all experince. Most final fantasy fans might hate me for admiting that. It wasn't the characters really, as Tidus did annoy me sometimes. However, the just the feeling of the game and the story line was enjoyable.

Final Fantasy XII acutally was pretty soild. I did a review on this game myself, which was given a good review. Yeah, the battle system was a change from the old school turn based style. However, all games, must change. They must elove and grow to keep up with other games. Final Fantasy XIII will be no different, in regards to the change. I do like the look that Final Fantasy XIII has, as I'm a fan of sci-fi, so it's not a huge jump for me. Long as it has a soild story, then I'll be happy. Being Sci-fi, it will help stand out from the other FF's that came before it. Though I do worry about making a female version of Cloud….when you should just create an entirely new character not based on anybody.

However, much like Spoony, I'll probally end up getting the game sooner or later to play it. But I ranted long enough about this. Admiting I played Final Fantasy this much is pretty geeky, even by Geek standards. =-)

Well I kinda fell asleep to this vlog and had to restart but I have to tell you you had some good points. TNA has all the tools it needs to beat out the WWE. They just don't want to use them properly. And that irritates me more then anything. They bring in some halfway decent writers, say ANYONE WITH A BRAIN!, actually get some action going on and wham bam you've got a wrestling show. Something called Total Nonstop Action should not have so many skits and promos it should just be wrestling. Actually give your characters some depth to their gimmicks. It's horrible and I can't watch it due to the fact that I know they're handicapping themselves.

Also this “war” between you and Dixie Carter is hilarious. I honestly want to know what she was thinking via that direct message to you. Maybe she sat through that Vlog of your's and was appalled and decided to see if you were real or something. I dunno

Anyways great vlog, great thoughts on iMpact and everything.

Ironbite-see ya when I see ya

“Never go full retard, man…”

The first thing I noticed about FF13 is that the hero looks way too much like Seifer's Kingdom Hearts 2 design.

You gotta keep doing these, they're so fun to watch and coming into the monday night wars again this is the best time to do this weekly. Love the stuff you do dude.

What I Hated About FFXIII :

1: Story mode that was just not that interesting for me – never grabbed me, some of the characters were original, but they were not really interacting with each other.
In FFX (favorite one, even with the pussy Tidus for a main character) – you had frequent cutscenes with character interaction (and yes, the lauching scene pissed me off too, it was rudiculously stupid. but the rest of them were good).
In XII you had a character interaction cutscene once every hour probably. I swear, there were some moments where I was bored out of my mind just gutting enemies left and right and waiting for some story development or end of area. It didn't feel right. Why were these suckers banding together if they almost never uttered a word to one another? Nobody gets involved with the others that much. And who was our main hero? Was it The blond little bitch or his girlfriend? I never got what their purpose was in the whole story. They could've just as easily been removed from the game with minor changes to the story overall.

2: Battle system was OK, but sometimes I felt I wasn't doing anything in battles. I could've gone for a coffee and smoke while fighting.

3: The Summons were way too weak – never summoned them more than once, because they died once someone bitch-slapped them. I have 2 killing machines that go around beheading and slicing people, and I would want to summon something who takes both their slots, and does exactly nothing?! O Rly?! Once the sumon has been hit twice, the guys came back and annihilated whatever was in my way.
So why include summons, why make me go through tough dungeons to get to them, and in the end they are such miserable bitches?! As I said : summoned them once to see how they look and what they do, and forgot about them forever.

4: Minor thing that has nothing to do with gameplay or story, but still pisses me off :
Lack Of CGI.
There was some, but they were like 20 scenes max, that were maximum a minute long, and most were 20-30 seconds.
Compare that to FFX's 60+ CGI scenes that were nice and long. I miss the beauty!

There. Someone who explained thoroughly why he… doesn't hate, but is EXREMELY DISAPPOINTED with FFXII.

Yes. Compared to FFX, it sucked all sorts of ass.

The main things I've heard about FF XIII's negative reactions are centered around the game's linearity and the absence of towns. FF games have always been linear and towns never really amounted to anything in the previous games so I don't understand the rage surrounding that.

FF XII had Vaan and Penello shoehorned in at the last minute. (Not long after the main buy had a breakdown and left the project leaving the story largely unfinished.) The main character was supposed to be Basch, but the higher ups didn't think people would identify with an older lead, so they tossed in a bland street urchin to really connect with the fans.

Huh. Never really noticed that connection between the Pope and The Rock, but okay.

Honestly though, FFXII deserves the hate. To this day, it is the only Final Fantasy game that has ever bored me to death and I honestly have never met a person who has actually finished it (among my circle of friends anyway).

I remember buying Dragon Quest 8 just because it came with a demo of FFXII, and was immensely disappointed with the actual demo, and far more interested in Dragon Quest instead (something that came as a pleasant surprise).

But seriously though Spoony, why the hate on FF7? Yes, it is overrated to all hell and has spawned the swarm of anime Tifa pornography on the Internet, but thats not the game's fault. For what its worth, its got a solid story with very interesting characters, and at the very least, the plot wasn't as convoluted as FF8.

Anyway, I can see that you don't seem to be very thrilled about getting FFXIII, and I honestly don't blame you at all for that. I may skip out on it to get other games (Heavy Rain, GOW3, etc.)

EDIT:

Oh yeah, and I know you're getting a lot of flak about doing these wrestling vlogs, but I honestly don't really mind that much Spoony. In fact, I'd say I enjoy your vlog rants more than your actual written reviews (No offense).

I like the rants, I've watched the other V-log three times now, made me laugh quite a bit. As for the Final Fantasy 13 thing, may I suggest something? Rent it, I know I know, but from what I've been told by a few of my friends over in Japan, it's not that long and EXTREMELY liner, then wait and get a used copy in a few months when they price is at 20 bucks a pop.

Gotta say, I love these Vlogs about wrestling, I know some other people may not like it, But i watched the last one about 45 times, and laughed very hard each time. I love this stuff, especially when u freak out about it. Ya know, you should Do more Vlog reviews about shows. I mean it, Hollywood writers don't know what they're doing anymore. As always though, loved it spoony, keep these up!

Poor TNA. They were much more fun when they debuted.

I imagine if you called the police and told them that a 250lb Samoan has been kidnapped on national television by ninjas, they'd probably arrest you for filing a false police report. They should have that happen.

dude, I'm with you on the Final Fantasy thing. I loved 12 but maybe because, as they said, it's not Final Fantasy anymore, is why I loved it. Whatever change they did at 7 that created the new benchmark for future Final Fantasy games… I never felt it… but no way am I even bothering with 13

Hey there Spoony! Long time viewer, first time poster. I definitely enjoy these Vlogs about TNA. I've never heard any good things about it, so I didn't really bother with it. Then I just stopped watching wrestling entirely… yeah. Anyway, regarding the whole Final Fantasy thing. I loved VII and Tactics, played V and VI, then essentially stopped after that. I played VIII then stopped somewhere in the 3rd disc, I believe it was during the invasion of the Pandora (at least, I think that's what it's called. Maybe it's Lunar something… I forget, been too long). Stopped mainly because the disc was scratched to hell and my PS1 would no longer read anywhere past the part where the Ragnarok was flying to Pandora, but after getting a PS2 I just never felt an inkling to finish it. I can't say anything about XII because I haven't played it, but it certainly looked to be an enjoyable game as I watched my friends play it. I guess one reason why I like the idea behind XII is because of its loose throwbacks to my favorite Final Fantasy title, Final Fantasy Tactics with every single Lucavi making an appearance in the game as summons and the setting taking place in Ivalice.

Anyway, I can say that FFXIII doesn't seem to be appealing to anyone so far. I just read a couple rants from Dom from the comic Megatokyo and the picture he painted of this game is not a good looking one so far. The point that he seems to drive home is the amount of time he wasted doing stuff in countless menus. The game didn't really peak my interests so much as FFXIII:Versus (or however it's titled now) did with its rather mysterious character and his ability to manifest swords from thin air.

But yeah, so far XIII is not lookin' so good. All I can say is good luck reviewing the game, and try not to kill yourself should it prove to be as bad as the backlash leads on.

Personally, my only problem with the FF series is theme and presentation; It just gets a little too whimsical and “pop-ish”, for lack of a better adjective, at times. I mean I know that's sort of a hallmark of JRPGs in general but I like a little more grounded experience. I actually liked 12 more than other recent ones because it seemed to reel things in a bit, despite still having the token emo girly-man in the title role, and put the story and characters in a little less juvenile light.

I hope you keep doing this Vlogs about wrestling (Specially about TNA).

I love wrestling, I want so badly that TNA succeed, but it's just infurating to the point of awesomeness the current state of USA's wrestling.

as nearly impossible as it sounds now , maybe there should be another actual 2-d final fantasy game . even though recently this is kinda becoming a phase ( mario , megaman , streetfighter )

Great vid, Spoony! I am really enjoying your commentary on TNA. I don't watch wrestling anymore, but there was a time when I did. But yes, you should definitely be writing the show; then I would start watching again.

I am a Final Fantasy fan, but as for FFXIII…I'm not sure if I'll play it >.<;;.
I'd rather watch you review it! It would be great!

Can't cast a pause spell? Maybe you're out of MP.

Lol spoony working for TNA, I wonder if that means that he will have to wrestle to earn his place xD

Spoony, if you complain that there's no wrestling on Impact and Raw, why not watch Smackdown? Two hours, tonight I'm counting six matches: Drew McIntyre vs Matt Hardy, Dolph Ziggler vs Shelton Benjamin, Ezekiel Jackson vs Jimmy Wang Yang, John Morrison and R-Truth vs Hart Dynasty vs Cryme Tyme, Rey Mysterio vs Luke Gallows, and Edge vs Big Show. That's a hell of a lot of wrestling. And most matches are over eight minutes, and there are a few really good ones. Talking segments are usually under five minutes. There's also better talent, for the most part.

I picked up the ugly thing right away. I guess it is just here in Texas that saying somebody is being ugly is saying somebody is being mean. :/ Who knew?

I'm just going to leave my running commentary on your….running commentary.

Abyss is the new Green Lantern. Didn't you know? =P

“If you're excited for this match…Don't be.” I laughed out loud at that. I really hope they at least let these two legends retain their dignity. …Well, let Flair retain his dignity. Don't get me started on Hogan and his film career.

As far as Nigel/Desmond, all foreigners on the show have to be evil. Even Canadians. Because Americans could NEVER sympathise with anyone who isn't American! *eyeroll* Seriously, I think Hamada is the only non-American on TNA who isn't a heel. Not that they care about the Knockout division anymore… *facepalm*

And you just summed up why I'm a massive Kurt Angle fan. *bows*

Pope is just a master of the mic, never mind his talent in the ring. I can't believe they ever tried to push him as a heel. I love how his charisma just completely overshadowed that angle in the storyline with Suicide. I really don't think the writers expected him to become so popular with the fans, which explains why the push is a little…belated.

“This match takes place entirely in the men's shitter.” Truer words were never spoken.

The X-Divi-what? You're totally right. They've thrown that down the drain faster than the Knockout Tag Champs. Great booking there, guys.

Okay, so, first Abyss = Kane. Then Abyss = Raven. Then Abyss = Foley. Now Abyss = Hogan. WTF? oO

Ah, I've gotta love Angelina. She was always better as a villain though. Great comic timing. Heh. My new nickname for Velvet Sky is officially, “Brave Sir Robin.” Bravely ran away away!

Anderson really doesn't have the same ring to it as…KENNEDY! …Kennedy. God damn naming rights and trademarks!

Where is the wrestling? Good question. I think it's somewhere in 2007. It really does piss me off though because they have SO MUCH TALENT at TNA. So much that they actually let great people go! Or let great wrestlers go for weeks without matches! And it's so frustrating, because so much of these pointless babbling segments are geared towards getting the fans to care about characters, when, really, what makes us care is seeing these talented performers WRESTLE MATCHES! *sigh* I really wish I were tuning in to the iMPACT that was on about two years ago.

“Abducted by ninjas.” …That so has to become a catchphrase! In fact, I'm going to start using it in regular conversation. “Where've you been?” “Oh, I was abducted by ninjas.” Instant Awesome, Just Add Ninja! Oh, and cheers for bringing up the Taz as a mentor thing. That was the biggest waste of an idea ever. That always bugged me.

This is why I miss the six-sided ring. It gives more flexibility to high-action aerial wrestlers, or at least it seemed to favour those speedsters. Correct me if I'm wrong, but it just seems like they've lost a lot of the stunts what with the massive ring and the high catwalk preventing suicide dives, and there are so many fewer flips and jumps, which is what I really tuned in for. It's no wonder they've buried the X-Division, actually, now that everyone seems to be grounded. Whether that's due to the ring or simple executive mandates, I really don't know.

I love Flair. Even at this age, he is the ultimate bleeder. I'm surprised he still has skin. I keep expecting his face to be nothing except scars.

“Is it so wrong of me to admit that when iMPACT just shuts the fuck up and starts wrestling…It's GOOD?!” Amen, brother! “SHOW THE MATCH! CUT OUT THE TALKING!” Oh, God! I hate how TNA does that. The commercials seem to take up at least a quarter of the show, and then the rest is just yammering back and forth and going in circles like my grandparents at the retirement home.

Great review Spoony. Always fun and entertaining.

Personally I'm interested in FFXIII; it's different from other FF games, sure, but it looks engaging at the least. Not saying it's good or bad yet, I have no idea how it'll come out. I can say for sure though that it will, like every other FF game, be very polarizing in its reception among fans.

Hey, Noah. You can actually go and watch full episodes of TNA Impact on Spike.com. And apparently people do judging by the view counts. And to be honest, if TNA puts up it's Monday night episode on Spike's website I will do a review of both. Cause I'm that much of a masochist.

You'd do a great job wrighting TNA. Also, I'm a hudge FF Nerd. Both old school and modern. However I do realise how stupid the premises are. So feel free to verbaly destroy FFXIII, I'll laugh about it and then go play it.

now about the FFXIII thing…yea I gonna pass on that one,now I know I am gonna get hate for this but…
In my opinion after FFVI….everything started going down hill slowly….very slowly…but after IX it picked up speed….

Here is an actual convo. I had with a friend over this subject on WLM…

Sasori-Friend
KOS-MOS-Me

Akasuna no Sasori: I see…well i´m getting the new Final Fantasy in a few days so…
KOS-MOS: ……..I am passing it up
Akasuna no Sasori: why
KOS-MOS: Because the new one embodies all the things that has brought the series down ever since number 8……12 was ok but I just can't get hyped up over 13…..I miss the simpler days of VI and Back……
Akasuna no Sasori: I hear a re make of ff7 is being made and it´s to be released soon
KOS-MOS: that I might get….
Akasuna no Sasori: Also it comes with the demo of ff 13…which is stupid
KOS-MOS: …….yea….if i get the Remake I am not gonna even play the Demo of 13

About the Final Fantasies, I belong the jumping off group.

Final Fantasies, the latter half of them atleast, are basically a combination of story, music and the game-system.
FF7 was was very good, FF8 failed in the story but did ok, FF9 I don’t know as I didn’t get to finish it, and FF10 was the best in my opinion, I’m sure you’ve heard the arguments for that.
And then the degrading started.

FFX-2 didn’t happen. I bought it and started playing it but I’m yet to finish it. FFX carries itself, it a closed circle, it doesn’t need FFX-2, and FFX-2 isn’t worth breaking that circle. After playing a while I though I’d write a blog of my full gaming experience of it and actually wrote a good 5 pages worth of text, but I had to delete it as I wasn’t physically able to continue playing it. Playing the game was like raping myself, ripping from me the good experience of FFX itself. There was really nothing at all I enjoyed in the game.

Then FFXII. It is a pretty good game! But it’s not a Final Fantasy. The fact that it’s actually called Final Fantasy brings it down as it lays some expectations and requirements for it. If it was called like Final Star Fantasy Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, it would’ve been ok.
As I said, Final Fantasies are story, music and the game-system.
XII doesn’t have a story. There is absolutely no emotional involvement, I can summarize the story and emotional depth right here right now: “OH MY GOD WAR WAR IS COMING MUST STOP WAR, OH SHIT WAR IS HERE WAR WAR ITS WAR WE HAVE TO DO SOMETHING, YAAAAY WAR IS OVER NO WAR YAY NO ONE DIED LOL”, and that’s pretty accurate.
XII doesn’t have the music. I suppose you can’t write music to work as the medium of emotions when there are none in the first place, but my god. It’s dull, it’s elevator music, who composed that crap? No way Uematsu would fall that far.
XII doesn’t even play like a Final Fantasy. The screen doesn’t crash into fighting scene, the fighting is hardly turn-based, the limit break system is made of ass and cancer, the leveling system is horrible, I could go on and on with this.

It just doesn’t qualify as a Final Fantasy game.

It’s been almost ten years since a good Final Fantasy game came out, and now the main character is a chick. Nothing wrong with that, but in my experience female main characters are used as a niche to compensate lacking somewhere else. Usually it’s a shitty game that is sold with sex, other times it’s a overly strong and confident super character that is made for feminist society to masturbate to, for what reason they lack all other content. Basically the games have been turning to the worse over time and now they are relying on a female main character, well, can’t keep my hopes high.

Anyone who knows what they are talking about knows that 6 is the best.

For me, 7 and 10 were good, 9 was okay but Vivi was the only thing going for that game.
I didnt even finish 12 because I got so bored of it. The combat system was alright and the world to explore was great but the characters and story were just so dull.

Didnt the demo of 13 come with the Blu-ray of Advent children? Maybe that is what your friend meant?

13 is okay, I dont really have the drive to 100% it like past FFs. Im thinking of starting a new game to try and get more out of the game since the extra missions are boring. It does keep you roped in to finish the story though, the character development is good, the story is decent and the combat system is effective.
Theres no hype around the game over here in Japan anymore, you can get it second hand for like 3000 yen (20-odd bucks? im not sure what the exchange rate is now) and theres tonnes of copies lol.

lmao awesome i love your tna reviews they are so funny please keep them up

I knew there'd be something in here for me. I knew it. I love your rants but ending on a final fantasy note you hit my home lol.

I've been a long time follower of the final fantasy games. I get a lot of hate because my favorites are IV and VI. And as much as I love 7, as soon as the hype wore down I was brain-fucked by the plot the first time through. And the Pop-eye arms? Please… dear god, they could have avoided that. Seriously, 8 made more sense to me. 8 Was hardly a final fantasy, but it was an enjoyable game and the graphics were better!

With 9, we were brought back to something familiar, and yet Square sort of got flamed for taking two steps back with the franchise. Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

10 was the pinnacle of the 3D games for me so far. It had a good balance between the fantasy aspect with some traces of sci-fi. I liked the characters and the story, they were actually balanced people and the voice acting's still good after all this time.

11 is where they lost me. I'm not a big MMO person, and then handing the franchise to the FFTactics crew for 12, we suddenly had the Tactics mythology impacting the regular mythology (moogles/chocobo etc) and it was FAR from familiar.

So with 13 almost here, I find myself skeptical if it will be a good Final Fantasy, a Good game in general, a good RPG, etc.

Final Fantasy IV had a direct sequel which was done for the WiiWare, and is a good solid title. It has all the stuff I love with its own modifications, but it doesn't fuck around with the franchise. It is Final Fantasy.

FFX-2… that was ass. It added nothing. Men played through to see Yuna's boobs, women played through to save Tidus.

I don't even wanna get into 12-2 or VII and a half mark three version eight point one 0

I have a feeling a lot of your fans are going to spam Dixie Carter's twitter/email/what have you in order to persuade her into letting you write her show for her. Personally a lot of this wrestling stuff goes way over my head (being Norwegian I've never had wrestling on TV… Ever), but you do have some funny comments and I at least know who Hogan and Warrior are, but I digress.

As for Final Fantasy… Well. I never played 10, but I'm a huge fan of 6,7 and 9 and the various spin-off games that excist. 12 didn't do it for me mostly because of the gameplay. It's not a bad game, but I couldn't get used to real-time battles when I had been so used to the turn-based battles of “yore”, if you will. I'll still buy 13 to try it, but I hear it too is a bit polarising among the fandom.

You know Spoony, Every time you post a video that disses something I like I usually start off angry and don't watch it. But like everyt ime I bring myself to watch it I find it informative and respectable. I mean I didn't realize you were complaining about TNA because you wanted to see it do well. You also pointed out the one thing that is getting out of hand in TNA, too much talking. But really Spoony, the whole ring thing was to get Abyss to become more confident and less pushy. I don't believe Hulk, even though he still refers to the power of the ring, really believes in it.

I don't know if you spoke on it in any other the other vlog's but I'm curious to what you thoughts onthe Styles and Angle match back on January 4th. I thought it was pretty amazing and the best part was the crowd response. But even I have to admit the crowds recently aren't as intense.

So as much as it pains me to say it, I can agree on a few things Spoony. I just hope that TNA will inpress you in the future. I still have faith in TNA.

Agreed, as much as I've enjoyed Spoony's mental anguish over the matter… a regularly scheduled TNA-induced breakdown would inevitably become just as asinine, repetitive and pointless as the show itself simply by virtue of the subject matter. Like, I actually laughed at these episodes of TNA, having not seen it in so long… but by the end of the second I was fully ready to not watch it again for another 10 years. :D

I agree with spoony. If he did this every week, it would become boring. Just save these vlogs for the REALLY bad TNAs and WWE shows. When Spoony's DVR skipped like the 1st 10-15 mins of the show. He did in fact miss a match. It was a 4 way tag team match. The overall was ok, but he did miss some wrestling.
I also agree that FF12 was decent game. The story, the graphics were pretty good. The voice acting and music was also pretty good. The characters were ok. The only thing that put me off was the combat system. I feel like it could have been smoother.
Honestly, Im not too hyped about FF13. But I'm going to get it anyway. If it sucks….then I'm gonna suffer with everyone else lol. Because I'm hardcore, and that's how I roll!

Finally someone who shares my sentiment! I want TNA to succeed so bad, but with plotlines about a magical ring, a wrestler abducted by ninjas and a has-been (Hogan, not Flair) all happening at once, I think I'll just stick to RAW this Monday, especially considering I can actually watch them live in the UK.

The only thing that disappoints me, is that among the wrestling fanbase, there are plenty of people who enjoy watching TNA crash and burn. Competition brought us the NWO, the Attitude Era and Stone Cold Steve Austin, so I say a silent prayer every night that they start showing some wrestling and less Hogan/Bischoff.

Also, Pope for president!

I've been meaning to watch the last Spoonycast on TNA, but I just never got around to it (I will Sunday, sometime). I have noticed the events that have been happening though.This stuff is reaching Austin vs. McMahon levels!!!! haha I love that comment on the wiki about “you being ugly?” LOL sooooo funny.

To Spoony and anyone else planning to get Final Fantasy XIII, just try mashing X all the way through normal battles. Then feel like your intelligence is insulted.

Well, I loved FFXII too. Its a bit different, and? Silent Hill Shattered Memories or Silent Hill 4: The Room are different from the rest of the series too, and they don't suck either.

I mean, yeah, FFXII is not without flaws. Or glitches. Or stuff that isn't s glitch but just a concept badly executed. But for me, Ivalice from FF spin off is one of the damn best worlds the series ever created. Its detailed in the tactics and tactics advanced games, was shown from an even darker side in Vagrant Story and FFXII and its DS sequel builds up on that. Sure, a lot is different then in the Ivalices shown in the other games, but thats supposed to be, its supposed to show the change the world took over time. And thats what people bitch about with FFXII the second most after the game play: Thats its shown to detailed. You see the life of the everyday civilian, aid them. You see how people live their live, how politics work in that world, or economy, how different nations and cultures interact, you see religion playing or not playing a part in everyones life, you can walk through cities and do shit. You cross epic landmasses by foot or ship and teleporter if you're lazy or have not much time. You can read all kinds of books or entries or stuff in the game, much like with Tactics or Tactics Advance and learn more abouzt the mythos, religious background, timeline and cultures and everyday life of the people in that world. HELL, you even read about the enviroment and how it works. And that makes me feel like a part of that world. No, not just thrown in to do shit, not just like the outstanding spike in the landscape, you're a part of that world and you start out small, try to seem small for the most part and giant monsters that can kill you with one hit show you that you're not an almighty beats but still can die if you're not careful, just like in real life. And having the possibility to evolve my chars in any given way but for efficient reasons letting them just go one or two ways on the license boards allows one to be either an alrounder or specialist.

And thats why I like that game despite its flaws. Because it immerses me.

Comcast DVR's are ass. Hated having to switch from DirecTV to Comcast simply because it was such a huge downgrade in DVR.

>ahem< Ninja! Abduct Joe?! Twas not I… >ahem< I know not of what you speak…
Love the Impact vlogs! Soon Impact will be in my town. I wonder how excited the people are. Really, i've barely heard anyone mention it. Except the giant billboards around town with HOGAN on them. I for one would like to see more of these vlogs. Myself and the rest of my ninja friends in the compound >ahem< I mean my book club love Spoony.
I enjoyed FFXII as well. But what I haven't liked in the past few FFs is that each character can basically learn every ability, which nullifies the relevance of character types and classes. But I won't go into that here. My favorite was IX.
Long live The Spoony Experiment. You have friends in dark places, Spoony One. Ninja are never too far away.

I also liked Final Fantasy XII, but I would still enjoy seeing a riff on it. In fact, I wouldn't mind maybe a one video riff for each of the Final Fantasy games, as well as other rpgs you might have played. I actually do enjoy poking fun at the things I like, so I say go for it.

I fear that your rants, RANTS of all things, are what may reawaken my interest in the testes/steroid ridden soap opera that is “professional wrestling”. Flair and Hogan rivalry in the second decade of the 21st century?!? Steel walker match, bitches, bring it on. btw, re: Final Fantasy, I can understand bein' ticked about your taking the piss out of 7 and 8, 'cause those are what I cut my teeth on when getting acquainted with console RPGs. Still, I think 12 is what they should have been all along; loads of political intrigue, with only hints at romantic liaisons. Sappy love stories are better left to shoujo animes and Harlequin novels, imho.

I'm a huge wrestling fan and I'm ROFLing a lot with your antiTNA crusade.
May I suggest something? Maybe you could review some good wrestling show you like, like comparing a good show and an old show!

Do a FF13 let's pley! show of hands, who wants to see spoony do a lets play of FF13 with spoony?

Where you stand as a Final Fantasy fan really depends on when you jumped in. I started with the SNES titles and hated HATED FF 7. It was nice and all but gone were the cute sprites and the myriad of emotions they could display; instead we have some spiky haired whiny emo punk and a white haired bishonen with a mommy complex fighting each other with ridiculous swords. And while the graphics were nice in some parts, the completely emotionless stick figure models were not.

The game and story in itself were nice, but when you have all those new kids running around shouting BEST GAME EVAR!!1! and compare all this hype with what you actually play and what you played before it doesn't hold up. FF 8 I actually liked when it came out, because the graphics blew me away even when the stupidity of the story and characters were grating.

FF 9 might be the only game of the PSX era I absolutely enjoyed. FF 10 could've been an awesome game without that insufferable twit Tidus as main character and FF X-2 is the single reason I never touched a new Final Fantasy again after that. My jaw dropped to the floor when I saw the intro and 10 minutes into the game the series had died in front of my eyes.

…Gettin' back to the wrasslin', Spoony I think I figured out why there is so much drama and not enough pile driving: they're trying to conserve their stock of wrestlers. Look at it like this: they only have so many guys, if they get hurt badly they're out for a month or two, so it makes sense to focus on this rediculous man soap opera instead of hitting the ring (it also gives the wrestlers a chance to get a SAG card, which will help them out when they are too broken down to hit each other over the head with folding chairs for money.) This is why they need you to write for them – you know tropes and how to avoid them, and maybe, just maybe you can give wrestling its dignity back.

Samoa Joe needs to come back wearing a suit made out of mashed ninjas.

hey Noah,
jsut saw this vlog was looking if you posted for monday's shows, yeah the tuesday show TOTAL surprise when my dvr tuned to it i was kindda confused. intersting why they didnt even promote this episode. The twitter thign is interresting, i think it is pretty sad if the only ting she gets from your vlog is that you are beign mean, i posted to her a few times pointing out some of the failings of the show, and how thier needs to be mroe actual wrestling. i am hopeing maybe she takes somethign more from it and atempts to improve the show, and yeah the new face book is pretty dumb.
I liek watching these vlogs becuase its sort of like watchign it with you becuase i tend to be in agreement on many of the points you make.
i wnat so very badly to Like TNA and WWE again, but i havnet avidly watched since the mid 90's,save a few here and there and wrestlemania, but that was mostly to hang out with my friends.
Seeign Hogan, FLair, Foley, Jeff Jarrod, and even Sting YEAH STING (on monday) and the whole “revival” of hulkimania jsut sort of makes me ..sad, it reminds me, much like it dose you, as we are both about the same age, of the old hay days when wrestling was at its pinicale, when wrastlin' was WRASTLIN' and storylines, however ludicris, always led to a MATCH and usually a pretty good one, it seems TNA has lost all sense of what made it great , which was the fact they did concentate on the wrestling, when Jeff was the owner.and yes what you siad about the ring makes perfect sense to me it is ridiculious, this leads me to my next theory, about Final Fantasy, heck im sure you remeber the confuseion of when a game called FINAL fantasy had a sequal? lol as grapichs became better the games had to relie less on story structure. I actually like Corno Trigger, and Secret of Manna more in some ways than final fantasy, becuase the story makes more sense, i have yet to finish final fantasy 12 as i got confused lost and bored of its seemingly random story elements, and i thnk the concept of putting final fantasy ONLINE is completly stupid, an MMORPG dosent allow for the charater devlopment, that should take place in a final fanstay game and not mindless kill this, stock pile this resource, make this, sell this earn this rank, crap taht FF onlien has become, my cousion LOVES FF Online i dont know why.but I Digress, in summary, Old school =better, new rehashes of old school = sad why nto try leeting your New younger talent WRESTLE and make thier own names for themselves so you dont ahve to use broken down reminders of yesteryear. *thanks hope you actualyl read these coments lol*end rant*

What's really sad is that, as Spoony said, when you get to the actual wrestling the show is actually good (in fact I'd even go so far as to call it great). I honestly think that TNA's matches are much better than WWE's and much better talent (I think it would be fairly reasonable to say that a good deal of people only watch WWE for people like the Undertaker or Shawn Michaels and couldn't care less about John Cena or CM Punk) and the only MAJOR problem that is in dire need of correction is the fact that out of a 2 hour wrestling show we get an average of about 15 minutes per show. If they could just make the amount of wrestling equal to or greater (preferably greater) than the amount of story and promos and hired some better writers than I imagine they could very well dominate Monday nights. But of course that isn't what's happening, good matches are still takinga backseat (and then some) to storylines that are so bad that most of them could be outdone by a gibbering maniac with no knowledge of TNA and nothing to write with.

First off, let me just say I may sound a little strange in my post here. I haven't been to bed in like 24 hours and have only had two hours of sleep before that. So if I come off rambling or miss something, I apologize.

That being said, may I say that once again, for the second week in a row, I actually sat here and listened to you comment on the horror known as Impact. It must be said that if you do another Vlog on Impact, I will probally watch that one as well. Granted I haven't watched any wrestling in the last six months, but I still find it amusing to hear your thoughts and ideas on the program. Impact has so many young talented wrestlers but they are shadowed by the older generation wrestlers ie Flair and Hogan (Don't even mention stains like the Nasty Boys, they weren't cool when they were cool).

My main reason for posting up a comment is in response to your Final Fantasy comment. I am not one to ever judge on what people like and dislike, as long as there is a “valid” reason. Don't bitch about the graphics, but instead complain about story or gameplay in general. Being pretty doesn't make you great. *kinda goes hand in hand with life* Anyways, I just wanted to comment on Final Fantasy XIII. I purchased a copy and rushed home, most likely getting massive cannonball run points in the process. I put it in and within seconds, I am quite literally wiping the drool off my face. Graphically FFXIII is a visual masterpiece. For the next ten hours I played, until I got exhausted and needed to take a break. A Spoony Break.

I will make this brief: It's not like any FF game before it. Don't expect to explore early on in the game as it is very linear. Battle system is great so far (I just now got Odin for Lightning so I haven't had a chance to fully experience all of what the battle system has to offer), and is very intense when battling. Don't put your controller down while fighting a battle for even a second, or you will die (unless you are smart and pause). It's honestly still too early to say if it is a great game or not, but I will say that so far, I have been impressed with the risks that Square took with such a big-named title. I highly doubt it will ever reach the acclaim of 6,7 and 10, but it does seem to evolve the FF series once again. My guess is if you liked XII as much as you say you did, you may find yourself not regretting the decision of picking up this title.

You only get Cannonball Run points if you had to cross a state line to get the game, if the spedometer reached 100 and then the needle bent, you conned Jim Neighbors to drive the car for you, or you somehow got Jamie Farr to soil his Lebanese heritage (again) by playing a stereotypical Saudi sheik (again), or if you passed Burt Reynolds and he raced to pass you and you blocked him a couple of times even though you were on a two-lane road. Miracle Cannonball points would have been given if you reported seeing clouds that looked like Frank Sinatra or Sammy Davis, Jr., a blank billboard that resembled the visage of Dom Delouise, or a Highway Patrolman that looked like an elderly Jackie Gleeson (even though that's the wrong series of movies*.) No point would be given if you saw the ghost of Jim Belushi in a dark suit riding shotgun with the devil in a battered Chicago cop car, but I would send you a beer.

________________________________________________________________________
* Though they shared the same audience of yahoos, out of season NASCAR fans, lifetime “Car and Driver” subscribers, people who mourned the end of televised demolition derbies, 12-year-old boys, and those who can't stop watching a joke being beaten to death.

Heh, I'll never tire of vlogs featuring you bitching about wrestling. That long one you did on RAW a few months back, I'll rarely laughed so much.

I wouldn't mind if this did indeed become a weekly thing, but I suppose it's better if you do it only when there's a particularly dire episode of Impact (or RAW). That seems to be at least once a month at this rate, though, so it wouldn't put any kind of a stop to these vlogs.

Does anybody else wish they'd bring back the triple cage from WCW?

Heh, it just hit me. TNA is the wrestling graveyard. It's where wrestlers go to die. Hogan, Ric Flair, Nasty boy, Angle… all these old bats who should have quit so long ago end up in TNA to end their careers before keeling over.

The whole saga of Bischoff/Jarrett/Foley is possibly the worst junk ever done by a major wrestling promotion. No one can tell me that this 3 month long storyline served any purpose or even led to any sort of interesting match.

I quit watching wrestling months ago, couldn’t stand the horrible storylines!!!

Did you wear pants this time?

Being from rural Missouri, I can confirm that in the South and Midwest, “being ugly” is slang for being rude or mean to others. My grandparents use the phrase often (in reference to me, of course).