A ZAK Entertainment Makeover & The Final Fantasy Anniversary

Welcome back to the new, refined and improved ZAK Entertainment for February the 1st! Yes this is the same website; you've not been redirected to some other cooler looking website. We're stepping into a new era (After like six months.) and I'm super excited about the future.

Giving ZAK Entertainment a Makeover

I've given the site a bit of a makeover to add a sleeker, more refined theme. I have been planning this new look for a couple of months now and I finally completed the banner the other night. ZAK Entertainment has been operating since September of last year and over those previous months some refinements have been made and some kinks buffed out. I'm really excited about the refined look and the future of ZAK Entertainment. The objects you see on said banner are based off the main topics of the blog, the big 4, or if you're a Pokemon fan the Elite Four. (Okay we'll use that name for now on.) The Game Controller, Knitting Needles, and Camera signify Video Games, Knitting and Film while the notebook signifies books, stories and in general writing. I mean I write all the words you see coming across your screen in a notebook before uploading it to the world so I thought it would be appropriate. I also came up with his idea the objects flying out of the notebook as if to signify my topics flowing out of my notebook, which is basically my brain on paper.

Another cool thing about this banner is the fact I crafted this pretty much on my own using Paint Shop Pro X2. I'm no graphical wiz but I've been operating Paint Shop Pro since I was very young. This would be the result of my Mum being pretty talented at the program and a veteran of it.

The game controller, camera and ball with needles are actually REAL objects! That’s pretty cool huh? The notebook was originally going to be a real object but I couldn't get the background removed properly no matter what I did so I figured, why not make my own? Anyway this is the theme ZAK Entertainment is going to have for now on. I'll be making a few other changes here and there in the future. Who knows we might go under an even bigger change perhaps in a year or two, but for now I'm happy with how things are looking so far. Another change you've probably noticed is that I'm actually separating topics via headers now. I've had this vision of making ZAK Entertainment like a magazine in a way with multiple topics and easy of access between said topics. Hope the new theme is pleasing to the eyes but don't forget you can always drop suggestions or critique in the comments below or on our social media.

If you want to check out Paint Shop Pro check out the new X9 version on Amazon! It's, in my opinion, the best photo editor but also the best graphics maker out there.

With these changes I've also made a change to the posting times! For now on all blog posts will be going up at 5:00 AM Central American Time/6:00 AM Eastern American Time. This way it'll be up all day long for those who are already seeking a post before what was my original 11:00/12:00 posting time. This time change should work out better for everyone in the end.

Also for those who don't know you can view ZAK Entertainment on your phone! I have a mobile friendly version of the site set up for phone users, that may actually be more convenient then the desktop version, oops.

Square Enix and Marvel Join Forces!

What happens when the creator of some of my favorite games in all of time, such as the Final Fantasy series and Kingdom Hearts, take on a brand new project regarding some of my favorite superheroes of all time? We don't know much as of now but Square Enix and Marvel released a brand new teaser trailer for an Avengers Video Game Project!

Not much was shown at all but from what I can gather the Avengers are going to have to reassemble to face some sort of evil. The CGI in this is incredible and if the actual gameplay matches up with this I think we're in for an amazing Avengers game. Who knows what kind of game this will be? Square Enix despite being famous for it's RPGs (Role-Playing Games) has dabbled in a wide variation of game genres. (Take Sleeping Dogs for example, which was an open world action-adventure, though that did have some RPG elements incorporated.) in a way I'm somewhat hoping for a possible Action-Adventure with RPG elements, perhaps in the same vein as Kingdom Hearts just not with the same mechanics of course. (Though Marvel worlds in Kingdom Hearts would be sweet.) According to the description on the trailer's YouTube video Marvel states "Marvel Entertainment and Square Enix announced today a multi-year, multi-game partnership, leading with the reveal of the Avengers project. This newly established partnership pairs the creative minds at Marvel and Square Enix for one of the most powerful alliances in interactive entertainment." So we can obviously gather from this statement that this is only the beginning of a massive future partnership, perhaps even leading into Square adding Marvel worlds and characters to Kingdom Hearts. I'll definitely be keeping an eye on this project, as it sounds pretty promising and will be discussing it more as we get more information!

A Not So Final Anniversary Fantasy

Yesterday marked the 20th Anniversary of Final Fantasy VII as well as the beginning of Final Fantasy's 30th anniversary. While I was only introduced to this series ten years ago the Final Fantasy series has a large place in my heart as one of my all time favorite Video Game franchises. Whether this makes me sound lame or not I was actually introduced to Final a Fantasy through Kingdom Hearts, which I knew about growing up but never got any of the games in the series until I discovered 358/2 Days in a copy of a Nintendo Power. (This could get its own article all on its own in the future.) Final Fantasy's characters are featured in these Kingdom Hearts games and inspired me to pursue the Final Fantasy franchise. With its turn based RPG system the game immediately drew me in. Final Fantasy now holds, after 30 years, 15 total main series titles with a plethora of spin off titles such as Dissidia: Final Fantasy. One title though holds its place in my heart above all others. I truly enjoy the many titles of this franchise but Final Fantasy VII takes the cake as being my number one.

Final Fantasy VII features an awesome cast of characters, a three part story (You actually needed three discs to play this game back on the Playstation 1), memorable music and a pretty cool equipment system. Taking place on the planet Gaia, Cloud a former SOLDIER (Aka Super Powered Soldiers using the Earth's Energy) winds up being employed by AVALANCHE, an Eco-Terrorist group. Together with Tifa, Cloud's childhood friend and Barret, leader of AVALANCHE they set out to stop Shinra from sucking up the planet's energy (Aka "Mako") for their own personal gain. This is only the beginning of an amazing storyline. The graphics, more so the character models, are a bit dated but not enough to deter from the experience.

Like mentioned previously this game runs using a Turn-Based RPG mechanic with Square Enix's (SquareSoft at the time) Active Time Battle (ATB) system. The Active Time Battle system gives the battles more flow of time. Say you want to make a move, you have to wait for your Character's meter gauge to fill before executing a move and also enemies can attack you while you're waiting. You have three characters on your team and with some strategy you can really control the battle to your favor. This game also has a new, or should I say different considering this game is 20 years old, equipment feature called Materia. Using these Materias you can equip spells and stat upgrades to your weapon and character. There's a ton of material out there with some pretty awesome combos.

Now of course with this recent anniversary I've been inspired to play the game through once again. (I've beaten it like 5 to 6 times already.) While yes you can play this on the PlayStation I found another medium you can play this on. I wasn't sure about it at first but I've come to really love the iOS version of Final Fantasy 7. You control the game via the touchscreen using a game controller like interface. Being that this is a turn based RPG game you do not have to make any crazy button presses so after a bit of playing I quickly got used to the controls. Everything on here is the same as the PlayStation with a few added features such as the ability to turn monster encounters off. The best part of this version is the fact it's mobile! Yes I can take Final Fantasy 7 everywhere I go, iPad, iPhone, you name it.

Final Fantasy 7 is a great game all in all and I recommend it, along with Final Fantasy 6, to anyone wanting to get into the franchise. You can get this game on iTunes, which I recommend for anyone wanting to play this game on the go.

Square Enix is also working on a remake of Final Fantasy 7 in HD but with no release date and not much information I'm not quite sure what to expect from it.

Channeling My Inner Super Mario

I channeled my inner plumber the other day, put on my Mario hat and Overalls and took care of some in house plumbing! I've been tackling some pipes, beating up some walking Mushrooms, saving a Princess from a fire breathing turtle, you know, the usual stuff plumbers do. Don't have to do this too often as we don't clog up much but every so often yeah. Maybe there will be more plumbing in my future... Wish me luck Mario and Luigi. Let's-a-Go!

A Pokemon Sun & Moon GTS Global Mission

One last topic I want to discuss before we wrap for the day. For those who own Pokemon Sun and Moon the Festival Plaza is holding another online Global Mission!

The mission is called "Trade Pokemon at the GTS!" and is the third global mission. Will we actually win this mission? The goal is for everyone to trade 1,000,000 (As a whole not individually, that would be impossible.) Pokemon via the Global Trade Station (GTS). This goal may seem doable but we actually missed the mark on the first two missions. Is this because of the lack of exposure? I’m hoping this reminder will get a bit more exposure out there. In order to participate in this mission though you must enter the castle in Festival Plaza and talk to the Hula Girl to set up Game Sync using your https://www.pokemon-gl.com/ account. Once your game is registered you can talk to the Hula girl once again to join the Global Mission. Let's get out there and trade Pokemon on GTS Trainers! If we win this mission we get 4000 Festival Coins!

We're wrapping folks! Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoy the new and improved ZAK Entertainment. Once again I'm super excited for the future and the upcoming year. So come join me on this crazy ride of entertainment! Check out ZAK Entertainment on Facebook to keep track of when I post as well as on on Instagram. Also check out my Youtube Channel where I post all sorts of videos from Short Films, Travel, Knitting, Vlogs and more! I recently started up a Tumblr as well so you can check it out at zakentertainment.tumblr.com it's a great place to keep track and interact with me. I'm also on Twitter, Snapchat as ZAKManK, and of course Ravelry! I post here every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 5:00 AM CST (GMT - 6) with a wide range of awesome entertainment topics!

Keep your lives entertaining!

ZAK Entertainment