Tuesday Top Five: Favorite Final Fantasy Protagonists

Original Publication Date: 11/29/2016

By:  Andrew Lister

Welcome to the next installment of a new articles series,Tuesday Top Five! From time to time I’ll be coming up with a Top 5 spanning a number of geeky topics. This week we celebrate the release of Final Fantasy XV with an article chronicling my favorite Final Fantasy protagonists.

Greetings, fans! It’s been a while since I’ve posted a Top 5 article, but I’m back with a promise of several Final Fantasy themed articles. Final Fantasy XV dropped today, and a lot of people have been eager to get their hands on the game. I may try it myself, but for the first time ever I’m not rushing out to get it on Day 1. Perhaps I was burned by every game after Final Fantasy X-2.

The first of several weekly articles will be my personal top 5 playable characters from the history of the series. I can tell you right now that my list is probably going to be VERY different from your own. As always, let us know what your own list is in the comments section below!

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Tuesday Top Five: Best Final Fantasy Games

Original Publication Date: 8/30/2016

By:  Andrew Lister

Welcome to another installment of Tuesday Top Five! Each week I’ll be coming up with a Top 5 spanning a number of geeky topics. This week, I’m going to rank my favorite video games from the Final Fantasy series.

Out of all my NES games, the one I treasured the most was my copy of Final Fantasy. This JRPG from Square was published in 1987 and was supposed to be the very last video game for the failing company.

I am a child of the Nintendo era. Growing up, I owned the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES for short), and I would lose myself in its many worlds, such as The Mushroom Kingdom and Hyrule. The games had simple graphics, but many of them were insanely difficult to play and master.

That being said, it turned out to be a massive hit, and as most people know, it spawned a number of other games in the series. Most of these games are not sequels, but many of them had similar themes and mechanics that evolved alongside the hardware of new consoles.

Trying to rank my Top 5 this week was extremely difficult, and I’m sure those of you out there may disagree with my list.  If you do, leave your own list in the comments below. We may read your comments on a future episode of the Tooning Japanese Podcast!

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Tuesday Top Five: Most Interesting Anime Villains

Original Publication Date: 8/22/2016

By:  Andrew Lister

Welcome to the next installment of a new articles series, Tuesday Top Five! From time to time I’ll be coming up with a Top 5 spanning a number of geeky topics. This week, we tackle the world of professional wrestling.

What’s a good story without an even better antagonist? To me, a good villain needs to not only be a difficult challenge for the hero, but they must also be motivated by more than simply wanting to do evil. Sauron was pretty badass, but we never see much depth in his character beyond his wanting to rule over all of Middle Earth. Scary and powerful?  Yes. An interesting, developed character? No.

The same criteria goes for anime as well. There have been so many great shows and memorable villains that making a list of the best baddies may seem like a tough task. That being said, I’ve assembled my Top 5 Most Interesting Anime Villains, and I want to hear what you think by leaving a comment below.  We may even read your comments on a future episode of Tooning Japanese!

Please keep in mind that there may be spoilers below. You have been warned!

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