We now look back on the music of Final Fantasy throughout the SNES era. Nobuo Uematsu levels up and creates some of the most moving and beautiful songs in all video games. We cover Final Fantasy IV, Final Fantasy V and Final Fantasy VI in this video. Don't forget to support us on Patreon if you enjoy the content. Thank you!

Time Codes:

1. Intro (0:00)

2. SNES (1:34)

3. Final Fantasy IV (14:48)

4. Final Fantasy V (33:31)

5. Final Fantasy VI (54:52)

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We look back on the music of Final Fantasy throughout the NES era. Nobuo Uematsu is a genius and fantastic musician, and with the limitations he had, he delivered some truly incredible and iconic soundtracks between Final Fantasy I, Final Fantasy II and Final Fantasy III. Don't forget to support us on Patreon if you enjoy the content. Thank you!

Time Codes:

1. Intro (0:00)

2. Nobuo Uematsu (3:53)

3. Final Fantasy I (35:27)

4. Final Fantasy II (52:13)

5. Final Fantasy III (1:14:40)

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In today's episode, we're talking about the 1984 classic fantasy film, The NeverEnding Story, a staple of my childhood and one of my all-time favorite films. Both this film, and the novel it is based on, are rich with symbolism, meaning, and contain a thematic richness that may surprise you. Join us as we revisit this amazing film from our childhood!

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Lots of people think that video games are a waste of time. Well, that may depend on how they're used and what games are being played. In this episode, we examine many of the health benefits that can be derived from a healthy video game diet. Playing games can lead to the acquisition of a surprisingly large number of skills. Skills that your parents probably weren't aware of, or that they didn't realize where you learned them. Bottom line is: games are dope. You should play them. Let us know what talents and skills you've gained through playing certain games in the comments! Thanks for watching and being part of the conversation.

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Research links:

https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1304728.pdf

https://scientificorigin.com/15-surprising-benefits-of-playing-video-games

https://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/releases/amp-a0034857.pdf

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0120011

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0187779

https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/24/health/kids-video-games-cognition-memory/index.html

https://www.videogameseurope.eu/perspective/girls-who-play-video-games-are-three-times-more-likely-to-pursue-stem-careers-than-girls-who-dont/

https://education.minecraft.net/en-us/blog/teaching-sel-and-cs-with-intention

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twE-zdUkB_U&list=WL&index=1

https://www.gse.harvard.edu/ideas/usable-knowledge/21/06/find-fun

https://today.tamu.edu/2021/09/06/5-reasons-video-games-should-be-more-widely-used-in-school/

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1359178907000055

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0747563212000623

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2012/12/17/ten-country-comparison-suggests-theres-little-or-no-link-between-video-games-and-gun-murders/

https://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2012/04/19/as-video-game-sales-climb-year-over-year-violent-crime-continues-to-fall/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xaICKlp9kQc

https://www.forbes.com/sites/daviddisalvo/2014/04/06/the-surprising-connection-between-playing-video-games-and-a-thicker-brain/#:~:text=What%20they%20found%20is%20that,brain's%20command%20and%20control%20center

https://news.byu.edu/news/video-games-are-good-girls-if-parents-play-along#:~:text=Researchers%20from%20Brigham%20Young%20University's,family%20connection%2C%20mental%20health

Is turn-based combat dying in video games? Is it already dead? Or is it just outdated, being kept on life support by us old geezers? Possibly an even more important question... can Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 help tilt the scales towards what is obviously the superior form of simulated digital combat?

Magic The Gathering as a computer: https://arxiv.org/abs/1904.09828

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Today, we are joined by our friend Max Derrat to analyze the ending of Metal Gear Solid 2! If you haven't heard of him, check out his channel here: https://www.youtube.com/@maxderrat/featured

After escaping from Arsenal Gear, the fortress falls out of the sky and crashes into Manhattan Island. Raiden is contacted by a different AI impersonating the Colonel and Rose. It states that GW was the only AI destroyed and that the S3 Plan's real purpose is to stop society's regression in the digital era from trivial information drowning knowledge and truth. The AI believes that humanity is too immature to handle the flow of information responsibly, citing Raiden’s lack of individuality and reliance on others for direction as an example when he protests the plan. The AI orders Raiden to eliminate Solidus—telling him that refusal will result in the deaths of Rose and Olga’s child. After Raiden defeats Solidus, Snake appears after tracking Liquid. Snake and Otacon plan to rescue Olga's child and locate the Patriots, whose details were hidden in the GW virus disc. Raiden is then reunited with the real Rose. In the epilogue, Otacon and Snake decode Ocelot’s disk, which contains data on all twelve members of the Patriots' highest council, the Wiseman's Committee. However, the members have allegedly been dead for 100 years.

Raiden awakens on Arsenal Gear, where Solidus reveals he had killed Raiden's parents and raised him as a child soldier during the Liberian Civil War. After this, Olga frees Raiden, explaining she is a Patriot double agent forced to help him in exchange for her child's safety. After the Colonel begins acting erratically, it is revealed that he is a construct of GW, damaged by the virus. Rose tells Raiden the Patriots had ordered her to become his lover and spy on him and that she is pregnant with his child. Raiden finds Snake, and together, they gain entry to Arsenal. Fortune then battles Snake, while Raiden is forced into combat with AI-controlled Metal Gear RAYs. The virus soon causes them to malfunction, and Olga sacrifices herself to save Raiden from Solidus.

Snake and Raiden are captured and taken to the top of Arsenal Gear by Solidus, Fortune, and Ocelot. Ocelot reveals himself as a Patriot agent and that the entire affair was orchestrated by the Patriots to artificially replicate a soldier (Raiden) on par with Solid Snake, titled the S3 Plan. Ocelot kills Fortune before being possessed again by Liquid Snake. Liquid explains that Ocelot's severed right arm was replaced with his own and plans to hunt down the Patriots using his host's knowledge and the stolen RAY. Snake pursues Liquid as Arsenal loses control.

What video games have the best music? We each made a list of the top 10 video game soundtracks of all time. For this video, we did not include Final Fantasy music. That will be treated in a separate video in the future. Do you agree with our picks? Whose list resonates with you the most? Let us know! And don't forget to support us on Patreon if you enjoy the content. Thank you

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After the assassination of President Johnson, the Colonel asks Raiden to honor his last directive—to rescue computer programmer Emma Emmerich, step-sister of Otacon, and help her upload a virus into Arsenal Gear’s AI system, GW. On the way to the flooded Shell 2 core where she is trapped, Raiden encounters Vamp again, who survived bullet wounds to the forehead and abdomen. Vamp reveals that even without the possibility of a nuclear strike, they could still use Arsenal's purified hydrogen bomb to emit an EMP over Manhattan, knocking it offline. He also hints that, contrary to what the press stated, Dead Cell was actually framed for the terrorist acts six months prior by the Patriots. Raiden is then forced to fight and defeat Vamp before pressing on to rescue Emma.

After finding Emma, Raiden struggles to convince her to accompany him. Not only is she suspicious that he is with the terrorists, but due to a near-death experience when she was a child, in which she nearly drowned, she is afraid to swim out of the flooded core. With patience, Raiden convinces her to hold on to him as he helps her escape. Along the way, Emma explains that she created the GW AI that controls Arsenal Gear. Together, the two then head to the Shell 1 core to upload the virus, but Vamp appears again and stabs Emma before being shot by Raiden. Emma uploads the virus but dies from her injury as the virus is cut off prematurely. Otacon leads the rescue of the remaining hostages while Raiden is captured by the Cyborg Ninja, who is revealed to be Olga Gurluchovich, and Snake seemingly betrays him as well. Big Shell then collapses as Arsenal departs.

Pre-rendered backgrounds have been disrespected and become a thing of the past in modern video games. That needs to change. Bring them back! We discuss this and more in our latest episode. Remember to subscribe and join us on Patreon!

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