After our heartstrings were played with by the Final Fantasy VIII Remastered teaser, fans have swarmed with tons of memes predicting and wondering how specific scenes would appear with stunning new visuals. Well, our memes and dreams are about to either come true or get shut down because Final Fantasy VIII Remastered is getting released on September 3, 2019!

Final Fantasy VIII and why fans love it

Final Fantasy VIII was a game that plotted itself in a fantasy world while digging into an emotional story-line of war and love. The game focuses on a group of young mercenaries led by Squall Leonhart. They’re adventure begins with a striking conflict: Ultimecia. Ultimecia is a sorceress from the future who possesses Edea and wants to compress time. In this quest, Squall encounters friends who inevitably join his quest to keep the world in its balance.

Final Fantasy VIII was the first of its series to reinvent the active time battle wheel without ignoring its roots. The game allowed more customization which ultimately allowed players to work around weaponry, armor, and summons that drastically affected characters’ combat style. These seemingly small tweaks in gameplay gave players breathing room to pick how they wanted to play the game making it all the more immersive.

While its predecessor, Final Fantasy VII, had 3-dimensional models, it didn’t significantly refine designs as much as Final Fantasy VIII. Every element in the game expressed more detail with as much accessible technology as Square could get their hands on. From the planet that showed a level of meticulous detail we hadn’t seen in the series before, to the hilarious “you’re the best looking guy here” memes, Final Fantasy VIII was weirdly ahead with visuals at the time.

What’s new with Final Fantasy VIII Remastered?

First, and obviously, enhanced visuals. The announcement trailer that was revealed in E3 this year made it loud and clear that each element of the game — characters, enemies, objects, and summons — were all refined and enhanced.

Second, battle assists. Final Fantasy VIII Remastered allows you to activate a booster to max out health points (HP) and active time battle (ATB) bars that trigger limit breaks at any point players need. Regardless, you will lose HP when you get hit with a critical attack that renders more damage than your HP, or by lethal damage.

Third, turning off encounters. Final Fantasy VIII Remastered has setting you can use to allow you to turn off random encounters. This is incredibly useful when you’re out of potions, phoenix downs, and need to run to the nearest shop. This doesn’t apply for event battles that need to be done to further the game’s plot.

Fourth, battle speed boosts. The game lets you accelerate time by a factor of three. If you want to breeze through easy battles or rush through level grinding, this feature is useful. This feature isn’t applicable for certain scenes and movies.

This is the first of a three-part series. Watch out for the next two articles.

When people say games have nothing to contribute in your life, I honestly believe they’re wrong. Playing Mobile Legends isn’t something I do mindlessly. I think, strategize, and find a way to win. Throughout the whole match, I’m invested in my game. I focus up, even though to some, it’s just a “game.”

In between defeats and victories, I realized a lot of lessons along the way. Here’s what I learned that’s also applicable in your work and career:

People are the key to success

To rise through the ranks — just like in life — we need to deal with people no matter how much we hate it. If you know how to lead, follow, and go with the flow, you’ll succeed. Mobile Legends taught me that it can’t always be just you. To succeed in this world (and in team fights), we need to work and band together. One man’s failure is our failure, and one man’s success is everyone’s success. We just need to fight and bring each other up to victory.

You don’t always get to retaliate

During my defeats, I learned that life doesn’t give us a fair chance to fight back. Some circumstances in life tell us to just stop and accept defeat and take the lesson learned into improving the next fight. However…

You can still flip things around

If opportunities arise, you can retaliate and strike back. As long as you keep fighting and keep your people together, you can turn the tables and win. Life may throw us lemons, but we can always make lemonade out of it and drink it while we’re on our way to victory.

There are a lot of selfish people in the world

People will leave the match unexpectedly, do things on their own and refuse to cooperate or steal your buffs and kills. You will encounter a lot of greedy and selfish people not just in games, but also in life. It’s frustrating and annoying, but we always have a choice to outsmart them, to try to include them, talk them out of it, or just be kind, try to understand, and accept that some people are just selfish at their very core.

Not all battles are worth fighting for

When you’re running on data, every minute and every fight should be worth it. Just like in life, our time, energy, and resources are limited. A former mentor always tells me to pick my battles, and I find it accurate especially as I am getting older and taking on more responsibilities.

We can’t always win our fights, and when we see we’re on the losing end, we can always retreat. There is no shame in admitting that you lost. Humility goes a long way.

Don’t be arrogant and belittle people

Some people are just starting, and they won’t hit as hard as you do. However, life happens and people gain a lot of experience where they grow stronger and smarter. You’ll never know who will be a worthy competition or an important ally in the end game (or later in life). Choose to be kind, it doesn’t even cost a cent to do so.

We all have our own pace and potential

Some people shine early. They get promoted, recognized, and get awards early in their careers. Heroes like Cyclops, Selena, and Angela are always strong during the first part. Other people (and heroes like Gusion, Claude, and Roger) shine in the middle as they rise through the ranks and the tables start turning around.

However, some shine in the late game. People (and heroes like Hanabi, Irithel, and Lesley) hits harder when they are at their peak condition. I guess what I’m saying is take your time because you’ll shine when the time is right. All you have to do is grind and work on yourself for now.

Communication is key

You can’t expect people to read what’s on your mind (especially when you’re playing a MOBA game). Like I said earlier, teamwork (read: people) is the key to success. If there’s a problem, tell people what’s wrong and how they can be better. Take the initiative to call for backup or ask everyone to retreat when they’re in danger. Lead them when opportunities arise for your team to advance and take down your opponents. The main ingredient in winning in life (and in everything else) is communication.

Mobile Legends: Bang Bang (MLBB/ML) is a mobile multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) developed by Moonton. There are roles or classes in Mobile Legends that have their own distinct specialty. This ultimately affects the effectiveness and functionality of the team you and your teammates construct.

A role or class is a category that your hero plays throughout a game of MLBB. There are a total of 85 heroes you can choose from six roles: Tank, Fighter, Assassin, Mage, Marksman and Support. Some of these heroes fall into two roles sometimes; each of them having their own unique abilities, skills, and stats that work to both their advantages and disadvantages. It depends from hero to hero.

How well you can manage a hero and their role as well as their specialty depends on your familiarity to the hero as well as your capacity to be willing to learn to play other heroes, the more you play ML.

As mentioned before, heroes have their own set of skills, abilities, and stats that inevitably help a team win a game. Think of roles as the basic facets your hero has and through it, you can determine your hero’s specialties and limitations.

Tank

Tanks are naturally bulkier. What I mean by bulky is that they have higher Health Points (HP), armor, and magic resistance. On the other hand, their attacks don’t hurt as much on their own.

If you like being buff and beefy, then try the tank role. They’re the walking shield of your team. They can take a beating from the enemy team so other roles can do the wrecking for them. Tanks can do Crowd Control (CC) with stuns, slows, hooks, and barriers which help save teammates and trap enemies.

Sometimes having a tank in your team can make or break a game. Most other roles have attacks that hit harder but if all of your teammates have naturally lower HP, it won’t take long for the opposing team to target you one by one and wipe your team out.

If we’re being realistic though, if you’re the person who prefers sticking to the meta and everyone picks marksmen, you’re the kind soul that worked on getting good at playing this role and probably more. Tanks are essentially the guys and gals who protecc, while his/her team attacc. Yes, with two c’s because remember, tanks and crowd control.

Fighter

Fighters are melee heroes who have a good balance of HP, armor, magic resistance and attack damage. They usually attack by jumping into and out of enemy range.

Fighters are semi-tanks. They have significant attack damage while racking up a good amount of magic resistance, HP, and armor. This role often takes the jungle and can single-handedly accomplish objectives within the game.

Not every team needs a fighter, but it can help to have someone who has a good balance between attack damage and the damage they can take. It can be a little daunting to play fighter if you’re non-confrontational since they’re melee heroes.

If you think being tank is a little too tough since the role relies on teammates for damage, you can take the fighter role. Basically, if you like hitting hard, surviving hits, and also dealing significant damage yourself, use a fighter.

Assassin

Assassins are pretty much the role you’d think an assassin would take. They’re quick and deal a painful amount of damage. Assassins normally roam and jungle, but they essentially take marksmen and mages down when they linger with low HP or overextend.

As the name of the role would imply, they like to catch people off-guard by sneaking and roaming around the map and making sure they punish any overextensions, secure kills and maybe sometimes steal skills from other teammates. Assassins are often equipped with multiple blinks and flashes — sticking true to their name and their role.

Remember: Assassins have mobility, stealth and damage at their advantage, but they can falter with not as much armor, magic resistance, and HP.

If you like roaming around the map, dealing significant damage to enemies, and sneaking in and out of clashes to execute the killing blow or prevent yourself from dying, play the assassin role. They’re slippery heroes that are tough to deal with.

Marksman

This is the role you’re taught to play from the get go. ML let’s you play Layla, a marksman, to learn the basic mechanics of the game so it doesn’t seem to be a difficult role to place. But what does a marksman have over other roles? Marksmen have high attack damage, high changes of critical hits, and range.

Marksmen are similar to Assassins with damage and attack speed but the marksman has range and skills with an Area of Effect (AoE). These default abilities and skills for heroes under this type enable them to hit hard, fast, and from far.

Marksmen are often referred to as Attack Damage Carry (ADC) heroes. They’re heroes that hit hard which, by default, allow them to rack up a good number of kills in the game. Although they do stack up a ton of damage, marksmen can be soft.

They have the advantage or range, but if someone gets up close, they don’t have that much HP, magic resistance, and mobility to often save themselves alone. If you’re the type to push and deal a ton of damage yet have the capacity to feel out when you’re being targeted and stay reasonably cautious, play marksman.

Mage

Mages are ranged heroes like marksmen but, instead of physical damage, they deal a painful amount of magic damage. They are similar to a marksman with their disadvantages: mobility and low HP.

They do find their strengths in the same category: attack damage or for mages, magic damage. On top of that, instead of solely magic damage, mages have a variety of spells, stuns, and slows that cripple both selected enemy targets and any area of effect they cast their spells on. Their spells depend on mana so mages preserve mana until they can burst spells down on an enemy target.

A fair warning though: if anyone so much as sneezes your way, you are absolutely done for. Mages hit hard but are soft. They are also significantly slow. Almost anything that can chase mages down and nibble at its HP is it’s kryptonite.

They are good at crowd control and mages do well when asserting their dominance by consistently harassing their opponents and by bursting them down with spells.

Support

Supports are often healers. Think of them as medics in your team. They help heroes heal, as well as increase their chances of survivability in a fight. Their varied skills can often stun, slow down, and throw targets back but unlike mages, supports don’t often prioritize their attack damage.

Support roles efficiently partner with roles that are disadvantaged with HP, magic resistance, and mobility to help heroes farm and take kills.

Supports are an essential part of team dynamics, but they aren’t necessarily crippled of attack damage or magic damage. Many supports are capable of tanking kills. Although it isn’t their primary objective, they can still take kills and rack up quite a number themselves.

If working around your teammates, cheering them on, and healing them is what you’d like to do, play a hero under the support role.

What is the best role to play in Mobile Legends: Bang Bang?

That’s a trick question. The answer is all of them and none of them. If you and your teammates work on synergy, cooperation and teamwork, all of the roles are the best. A game like Mobile Legends: Bang Bang can foster the importance of diversity in teamwork when working towards winning.

Each role has its strengths and weaknesses but that is ultimately why it’s important to have a healthy mix of different roles in your team. If your team were to play the same role, you’ll find the role’s and their heroes default weaknesses become amplified — making it easy for enemy teams to win.

If you’re just starting out playing Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, ease into one role and maybe expand your skill set little by little. It’ll help you grasp the significance of each role and what they can give to the larger objective of the game: teamwork, fun, and practice.