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It's crazy to think I've known about this franchise for 20 years, it's always been on the fringe of my fandoms but I never got to experience it until now.

I got into J-rock and all things Japanese in 2005 and Gackt was one of the first artists I was into. Such a glorious bastard. And it was at that very time when he became Genesis. I might be biased, but I feel like he fit the role of Genesis very well. Weird, maniac, pretentious, poetic, but ultimately incredibly badass.

I love that Genesis' body is decaying and he just looks stylishly vintage. Bitches wished they decayed like that! No wonder those renegade soldiers agreed to become his copies.

I hope they remake Dirge of Cerberus as well, although it would take years.

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I don't think my oldish laptop can handle Rebirth, especially in this heat, so I went for Crisis Core instead.

It's probably the most unbalanced game I played and I have a lot of frustrations with it, but overall, it was still a good experience.

The fighting system is just so random and complex. The controls suck on PC, since they were meant for a portable PS. Leveling materia, only to find a higher tier materia, leveling that instead, until... yeah. And the frequency system is just straight up confusing. Overall, I don't like relying on random buffs to win.

The story is pretty short and most of the playtime is just missions. And you can't really progress the story because bosses will obliterate you unless you buff up on missions, but also there are so many, if you try to do all of them, you'll get way too OP for the endgame to be any fun. So that doesn't feel optimal.

But in terms of story, it was pretty interesting. Though while it answered some questions, it also raised a lot more. One of the reasons I struggle with Japanese games, is the stark combination of dramatic narrative with ridiculous and funny. You got god summons and you get a running cactus and cheeky anthropomorphic cat. But that's just Japan for you.

At the same time, the game is very self-aware. It has a lot of humour and tongue in cheek episodes. The fact that there are fanclubs of the 3 Soldiers within the game already makes it pretty unique. As a bonus, it was really fun to see Gackt, I mean Genesis. Another good thing was that transition was more orthodox that in Remake, which was good for my soul.

Might play again for the story 7/10

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I haven't seen anyone do it so I took it upon myself to deliver Alan's will. [AoA ep 244 spoiler]

Now Adam approved!

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Just this.

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i respect those people who have sideblogs for all their different interests, if you follow me, you’ll just have to accept you’ll be submitted to whatever nonsense i’m into at the moment

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D&D Logic III filming

Still not sure about Adam's wig but eh, they tried.

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Glad they got it out of their system.

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I finally got around to playing FFVII and I love it! It's original, it's story-rich, it's dynamic and very pretty. Also very gay.

It's really refreshing, as most Japanese things feel. I actually love the way you don't get an exposition dump at the start and are just thrown into the game, learning about the world and the characters along the way. And even though you learn a lot by the end of it, you still don't really know what the fuck is going on.

The environments are pretty, the heroes are pretty, the villains are also pretty and there's a lot of unsubtle homoeroticism going on. I played a little with clothing mods, but it's not even obvious, as there's already obligatory Japanese crossdressing involved.

The battles were a but too hard on normal for me, but then maybe I'm just not that into ARPG. But the battle system overall is pretty fun.

More than anything, I am really glad I know enough Japanese to understand most of the speech. The English voiceover (and subs) feel so off. Like, I kind of understand it's meant to adapt the story to US audiences but it changes the vibe sooo much. It's basically not a translation but rather an idea of what an American character would say in a certain situation. It really alters the perception of characters and their relationships.

Overall 9/10, looking forward to the next one!

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Every time I hear 'hanky-panky', I always see this is my mind. It has to be one of the silliest phrases in English.

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"Did you see the fight last night?" - is a phrase I never thought I'd say.

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Adam was so naughty...

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I knew it was coming but I was SO not ready.

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They are so extra!

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One of my favourite running VIVA jokes is them calling each other nerds.

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Aww Greg found his sheep again this time try not to get it killed Greg

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Wow, mean. Just because Ben's been doing BJJ for years. And has a black belt. And gained like 15 kilos since last time. Doesn't mean he's gonna win. After all, Rowan's wanted it very badly.

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Rowans going to lose

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Gotta admire Ben going from romantic hero to weirdo in 0.5 seconds.