#i also did this with ffvi. and would have done it with ffvii if the switch version didnt have built in cheats

[kirkwallguy]

every time i play a traditional jrpg i enjoy it until i hit a difficulty spike that requires me to grind and then i remember why i dont like playing them

[jones-friend]

I recently beat Final Fantasy VII: ReMake and I have thoughts!

For a game like this context of the speaker’s experience is important. I grew up a fan of FFIV and FFX. I played FFVII once while sick and did not get far. I have since played bits of FFI, FFIII, FFV, FFVI, and FFXV. The music of the series is near and dear to my heart, and after beating the game I picked up the original FFVII and have just beat the Midgar sequence, where the remake ends.

If you’re on the fence on playing this game and would rather not be spoiled I recommend playing it! Its a mixed bag of an experience but its one I’d recommend from a cultural/historical/entertainment perspective. It isn’t the best game ever, but its a heartfelt AAA production. For those who read further there will be spoilers.

Final Fantasy VII: ReMake is a mixed bag where its high points are incredibly high but its low points are incredibly low. It has a fantastic soundtrack, the main characters are stunningly animated, and its main boss fights are all fantastic showstopping sequences that at its strongest points blend story and boss fight together. It also had dreadfully pace breaking side quest hubs filled with PS3 era characters asking you to do tasks that feel like dragging nails down a chalkboard. It has my favorite and least favorite sequences in gaming all in one.

FFVII: ReMake’s strengths come in its ability to spend more time with its characters and more properly stage the game’s more dramatic events. A fantastic example of this is the plate drop scenario, where Shinra drops a large chunk of the city to frame Avalanche. In the original game just after the Airbuster some turks approach Aerith in the church and you toss barrels at them. Then later when the plate drops you fight a named turk Reno. FFVII ReMake is able to use this foresight and gives you a lovely multistage boss with Reno in the church so Cloud and the player have an antagonistic relationship with him so when you encounter him atop the pillar there’s a reason the track is called “Rematch atop the Pillar”. Now you have this cinematic, story motivated battle where Cloud and Tifa juggle Reno as Barret keeps Rude’s chopper off your back. Its an incredibly well done sequence.

The game’s actual gameplay is closer to something like Kingdom Hearts. It used the Active Time Battle or ATB system. To charge ATB you have to get aggressive and attack with Square and/or Triangle. Once you have an ATB charge you can use an action: ability, spell, item, etc. Use these to stagger your enemies and make them susceptible to the Pressured status. Inflict Pressured to make them take more damage. Use a limit on a pressured enemy to feel absolutely disgusting. Its a good, high stakes system! I would also totally understand where players may feel frustrated getting TPKO’d while trying to charge ATB for a heal. It isn’t a perfect system, but its one I find fascinating. Thats likely because of my experience with Final Fantasy games and patience with ATB. You use the D Pad to skip between party members so if one gets cornered you skip to a new party member and boom you’re flanking.

Many bosses are now 10-20min productions and I love them. They’re showy with bombastic scores and dramatic movesets. The Jenova Quickening boss stands out in my mind as an example of what makes this game good: you fight through various stages of the boss as the score slowly puts together the Jenova theme and the last phases pitches all the previous phases together under the completed Jenova theme and its absolutely wild. The Scorpion Sentinel, Airbuster, Valkyrie, Ghoul, Reno and Rude, Hell House, Jenova Quickening, Rufus, and Sephiroth fights are top tier, A+ stuff for what this game has to offer.

This game is a mixed bag bc as I love these boss fights I also loathe the sidequest hubs. They always break the game’s pacing and deflated my interest in the game each time. I highly recommend checking sidequest rewards for what you want and skipping the rest. The game also takes about 25% too long everywhere. Cutscenes, dungeons, combat, all of it overstays its welcome by about 25% leading to some serious pacing issues. For a game taking its time to spend time with characters its odd how much of that time isn’t used so.

All that aside, I did greatly enjoy the FFVII: ReMake, I will play its DLC, and I will play the next installment. You can probably see by what I highlight and what I don’t talk about as strengths and weaknesses of the game. The Honeybee Inn segment was a fucking delight, the boss fights kept me on the edge of my seat, and the soundtrack is something I now regularly listen to. If you’re able to give this game a shot I recommend it! Its a well meaning even if flawed game I think is worth your time.

[randomkposts]

7.Of perverted dawn and broken dusk, Into a walled garden, the forbidden kingdom, Portal (FE Fates), because he strayed across the path, face death in the hope & In the name of the brave, para bellum, the adventures of Harry potter the viseo game exploited, (HP)Harry potter and the natural 20 (HPx D&D), Sincerely, Shattered Shards (KHR), Deltas mind, Doch' moja (Bioshock), A song of Smith and Wesson (ASOIF), Incident report, Shinigami's child, The somewhat cracked mind of Ucihia Itachi, Twirl, Chasing a Legend, Team 8, How to think without thinking, heliocentrism, don't hold the war inside, Team 7 a retelling (naruto), Ghost in the machine, sink to the bottom with you, any of Esama's ffvii works,

exit materia (ffviixhp) Ineptus (Buffyx hunger games xover), a farce at playing house& a farce at playing dead (p5), I think I would remember, and all the world comes tumbling down (until Dawn), If I lost on purpose would you stop following me, snapshots (pokemon), Father Gothel, Plegian queen (FEA), children of the underworld (PJO x Kane Chronicles), for want of a palidian (ffiv), of monsters and mourning (ffvi),

Bonds across time (yugioh's xover), Dragon and horse (mulan), the page years (song of the lioness), Displaced, a monk on the temple steps (AC), shooting stars, falling objects (Avengersx inception), Tony stark and the Hetrodyne legacy (avengers x girl genius) Dark horse running (kh), Hear O Israel (the book theif),

Heart of darkness, alliance of enemies, I cant actually poat the name of this fic here because it isnt clean, any starwars by fialleril (starwars)

I started with seven, as that will hopefully knock off some fandoms when I get around to answering question one. These are ones I want updated that haven't been in awhile. It is not all on the list. I read fast, and have been through a lot of fandoms in the 10+ years (oh no I feel old) I have been reading fanfiction.

2. Character exploration. Time travel. AUs

3. Oh no, Just one? You saw what I did with update wishes right. I'll keep it to 11, you didn't see above. Its not all of them. Not by a long shot. Purple days (asoif), the final summonig (ATLA x FFX), Bodens mate (xmen x inception), plexiglass (PJO), marigolds (persona 5), the black games (ATLA hunger games fusion), Hokage Kakashi (Naruto), sith lord swell (starwars), swung by the serafirm (hp), I am not a tragic figure (dragon age). And Bad boys jedi style by Kelaria. Actually all of her starwars fics are fantastic,and I'm sad I can't find them anymore. Except for the mentioned one. That was archived.

4. Yes. To both

5. Both good. Depends on my mood. Sometimes you just have fics you want to be angey or sad with or whatever.

6. I love both

8. Ships. Um, Zutura, yuffietime, Aurikku, Brianne x Jamie, team seven kids, yuxyouske, Tatsujun Gororyuji, Leox Sakura, Leox Takumi, Hilda x Dimitri, umm look, for the most part I can go along with a ship, if the story is well written. I go for rarepairs,I go for poupluar stuff, I'm here for the writing. I'm not diehard attached to most of them.

9. Yes. I wouldn't have once, but I've grown in the 10 years.

10. In what way? Do you mean like Catalyst (p5) way of multiple people involved in sex (all the PTs?), pride by astolat who also wrote robot sex, that I went yolo and read? Done deal just seal, gororyuji enemies to. .. Fuckbuddies? In a small enough fandom/catagory/ship, you will probably read at least a little of most of the fic.

Something built on emotional manipulation like hopeless wanders sasunaru?

I haven't seen it all,but I've seen a fair ammount.

11. Absoutly

12. What fanfic is not AU technically?

The avengers hockeyverse get ready for it. By philyra.

Why we built the wall (naruto)

Bad boys Jedi style- star wars as a hollo series.

Harry potter and the natural 20. D&D rules always make for an intresting read, and the Oc is a lot of fun.

Lilly and the art of being Sisyphus- a fic about an oc girl named Eleanor Lilly Potter, master of death, who is pretty sure that most people are fake, and other strange beliefs.

Staring Death- harry potter from another world/universe who has lived a long ling time.

Wizard Lenin- the voldemort Horecrux in her head.

Other horecruxes

Rabbit the edolich being turned human. He's not even trying to hide his nature but is so pretty few people care.

The Romanian vampire revolution.

And has several spinoffs and crossovers with other fandoms, by the same author, with much poupluarity. Thats how you do an OC it seems, damn.

Fialleril's extensivly built starwars universe. Particularly Tatooine slave culture. Other people alao write stories in that universe.

13. Ones that go hard on their world or character building I think? I like when it goes really slowely divergent based on character decisions.

14. Sometimes its just not my thing. No spacing. An interpretation of a character that I really don't vibe with. Rape. Can be many things.

15. Sometimes its that it sounds like its tone an emotion I am working through in my life. A tag I looked up. A description I like. Curisoity. A new fandom I'm in. It was on the bookmarks of the author I liked. It was done by an author I like. I looked up a particualr character and combed through the tag and found stuff I liked. Many reasons.

16. Many. I'll do 11. The bird dies in a self created fire (persona 3). The final summonig (ffx x atla), a glass can only spill what it contains (FE3H), Plexiglass (PJO), in a fadeing echo (FEF x FFX- ffx endings usually sad guys), close your eyes you've been here before (dishonored), choices (kh), the locked room (kh), the ending of dear kunsel (FFVii), but that was in another country( kh), sunshine in the winter (ffvii)

17. Alright. 11 again. Yosuke Paridiso (p4), team seven vs paperwork (naruto), when in doubt obliviate (HP, and other funny works by Sarah1281), Harry Potter and the evil summer vacation (HP set with austin powers Scott Evil and other antagonists), my side of the mountain (ffiv), successful missions (metroid), a collector's guide to careing for your pets (KHR), vigilante tendincies (KHR),Ned stark adopts his way through Westros (Asoif), all abord the wenchslayer (Asoif), you know you have a permanent peice of my medium sized Amarican heart (the martian), the retelling of pokemon colusem ( pokemon), there may be some collateral damage (Bleach x HP)

18. I would not put fics here I would not recommend in some way. I can't say all my bookmarks are equal, but I would look there.

19. Probably over 1000 at least.

20. I think I already have. Lilly and the art is certinaly very diffrent and fantastic.

21. Yes

22. How Ovelia got her brave back (FFT) game mechanichs for the win. Not another bloody conspiracy (ffviii) all the tropes. Game over (twilight) gamer style bella. Permission to castrate please (twilight x Naruto) sakura goes to forks to find a cure for Itachis terminal illness. Edward will not stop stalking her. Actually ends kind of sweet. Those lacking spines (KH). Uses every trope in the fandom. Starts off kind of mocking ends sweet. FANER (chrono cross) a fic about the sheer lack of sense in games at times.

Maybe their not all quite crack. But also its 6am, I can change this later if needed.

23. Yes

24. On fanfiction? 1525k. On A03? 868967. I think. I'll edit if I remember I've read something longer then bad boys JEDI style.

25. Dubious I will check out, and nope out if its too much. Noncon is usually a no. If I trust the author, maybe, but.

26. Snapehorn. Rape. Most cases of incest.

27. More "a diffrent sibling was raised in nohr instead of Corrin". Perhaps even with a diffrent nohrian raised hoahidan.

Fusions. Inception and FFX have been pretty well done, or at least the ones I've seen. Woud like to see AC and Bioshock play off eachother with venetic memory.

28. Sarah1281, lullabyknell, Fialleri. Shanastoryteller. Bobandbill. Kelaria. Aria Saralyn, barrus, supercrunch. Aleciarosefantasy. Aloneintherain. Insane troll logic. Ankhiale. Elizabeth culmer edenfalling. Dirgewithoutmusic. Super robot malinarlen.

29.sometimes. Usually its a fave.

30. Very often.

31. Some

32. Um. Usually their pretty short. I wish I were more comfortable gushing, but the transition from thinking to writing is hard for that. I do try to remember to leave somethi g though.

33. Yes

34.ABO is truely an odd dynamic. And Hanahaki leavesme so mixed. Soulmates too. Soulmarks cool, soulmates debatable.

35. Um you saw how I answered question six, right? I'll not make you dig through that. I'll just link my pages later, and you can browse favorites if your intrested.

36. Yes

37. Sometimes. I'm dependant on mood. And can and will bingeread to cacth up.

38. Tv tropes. Bookmarks. Tumblr blogs.

39. Probably Shanna, thohgh I'm sure I will if needed. Maybe Barus too.

40. Yes. Will link them in later question.

41. Fanfic endings suit the story they are written for usually. Less likly to find a HIMYM, supernatural or Got style ending here. Still, its not a fic ending but an arc. Barus's purple days. Particularly its yi ti arc. The seige part 2.

42. You know I could probably have listed off plenty when I was younger, but now I usually find that the length is good as it is. And thats what series and sidestories are for.

43. On ocasion.

44. I guess books, movies, then TV shows. Although I do have a lot of avengers fics on lists. Might put video gakes first.

45. Yes

46. Perfection is illusionary. Some days what I need is cupid painted blinds Political Katara in such selfish prayers. Some days I want to be blown away by purple days. Or be part of the emotional moments in Marigolds in Goro Akechi's quest to do better this time around. And they are perfect in that moment.

47. Depends what they are looking for from it? Maybe Kore (greek and Roman mythology) for something they are probably familar with, to show fanfiction can also be a tool to learn. Maybe a story by dirgewithoutmusic, for wonderful language and fandoms they are probably familar with. In Media Res (inception) and the ones that inspired it (linked) for an introduction in the power of POV shift.

48. Yes

49.

https://m.fanfiction.net/u/3405844/random-k?a=s

50. Fanfiction. A03, occasional LiveJournal, and spacebattles.

Purple days has an odd start, but the story gets better and better the more you read it. You can see the improvement in skill. Not the only story I have read on there. But the most invested.

1. What fandoms have I not listed in favorites?

50 Questions for Fic Readers

What fandom(s) do you read?

If you could request more of a certain type of fic, which would it be?

What is your favorite all-time fic?

Do you ever re-read fics? How about triple-read?

Do you prefer angst or fluff?

Do you prefer long fics or short fics?

Name some incomplete fics that you wish were completed.

Talk about the ships that you read.

Do you read smut?

What’s the most hard-core smut or kinky fic you’ve ever read (be honest)!

Do you read AUs?

List a few of your favorite AUs.

What type of AUs are your favorites? Give a general description.

What makes you give up on reading a fic?

What makes you pick up a fic, what makes it sound interesting?

Name a fic that made you cry (or that made you come close).

Name a fic that made you laugh a lot.

Do you have a fic recommendation page or master list?

How many fics do you think you’ve read before?

What’s the weirdest fic you’ve ever read? Describe it.

Do you read crack!fic?

Name a few of your favorite crack!fics.

Has fluff ever made you cry? What about angst?

What’s the longest fic you’ve ever read?

What’s your opinion on reading dubious consent or no consent?

Name a type of fic you’ll never ever read.

Name a type of fic that you wish there was more of.

Who are your favorite fanfiction author(s)?

When you find an author you like, do you follow them?

How often do you read fanfiction?

Do people know that you read fanfiction?

Do you leave reviews after reading fics? If so, what do they sound like?

When you read a good fic, do you go to the author’s page?

Name a common type of fic that you cannot stand.

Name all the Work in Progress fics that you are currently reading.

Has a fic ever left you unable to fall asleep or think about anything else?

Are you good about keeping up when reading Work in Progresses?

Name some of your favorite fic recommendations pages.

Name a fanfiction author that you’re scared to talk to because they’re so amazing.

Have you ever written fanfiction or considered it?

Name a fic that has a perfect ending.

Name a fic that you wish was longer.

Do you read OT3 fics commonly? Have you ever?

Do you mainly read TV shows, movies, or books?

Do you read fanfiction about Anime?

If you could imagine the perfect fic, what would it be like?

If you had to introduce someone to fanfiction with a few fics, which would you suggest?

Have you ever read a fic containing character death?

Do you have an AO3/Fanfiction.net/LiveJournal page? Link it.

What sites do you typically use to read on?

[guppolopolis]

My own little FFXV review, as well as my slightly-tipsy analysis on Final Fantasy in general and how I believe it’s grown as a series

As a fair warning, there are FFXV spoilers about halfway into this, and I’ll make sure to make it very obvious where it is, but I just figured I’d throw my two cents out into the world just for fun

So, Squenix said a while ago that they are very aware how different the new FFs are from their old games; if I separate the games into “generations” as it were, we’d have something similar to this (XI and XIV don’t count purely because they’re their own thing):

FFI-III, where the Square were just getting themselves figured out and riding the “these games just saved our shit” wave. They were big on just making a fun game with an adventure and an end. There wasn’t much to the stories, but that was kind of the appeal. They were honest games. They knew exactly what they were about.

FFIV-VI, which I humbly believe is the FF Renaissance where the games were in their prime with both plot delivery and gameplay. FFVI particularly is probably my favorite game of all time, and got me into the series as a whole. You can tell that this is where they really begin to make a story for their games. These games got reworked and ported so much for a reason.

FFVII-X, where they began to use the processing power of the PSX and PS2 to add an element to their cinematics that would eventually make the FF series what they’re known for. These games were also great (we don’t talk about VIII), you’d be hard pressed to find even very casual gamers who haven’t heard of Final Fantasy VII.

FFXII-XV, where Squenix knows exactly what to do to make the cinematics something good. These three games [and their sequels] were pretty, but there is something intrinsically missing, which I am going to splurge about for a bit.

Final Fantasy is one of the oldest series out there, at a whopping 29 years as of last December. Change is gonna happen, that’s inevitable. However, the game has definitely gone from its roots. I’d go so far as to say the focus shifting from gameplay to cinematics is extremely noticeable in every way, shape, and form.

People argue that XII is where this shift really happened, despite sharing a console with X, because one of its biggest issues was pacing. Cut scenes were scattered everywhere, and the game overloaded you with political information that it expected you to keep up with. Clearly, this game wanted to serve you a story, and they hoped that the gameplay kept up. However, if you really didn’t care about the gameplay, the “it-plays-itself” gambit mechanic lets you ride through the story without too much concern. (If you ask me, the story isn’t good enough to warrant that playstyle, but I digress. Not a bad game)

Final Fantasy XIII was also a problem, for better or worse. FFXIII’s problem was that it was just a goddamn tube the entire time. There were 20 (fucking twenty) hours or so of straight lines and hallways through different [very pretty] levels before it got open-world whatsoever. I hated XIII, and this game is where the shift was completed. Glitz, glamour, and appeal that veil a game that should’ve been a movie.

Final Fantasy XV, however, is probably the worst offender I’ve seen thus far from cinematics poisoning a game’s potential.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~FFXV SPOILERS~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I got into FFXV expecting nothing. Like literally, nothing. I hadn’t watched any of the trailers, or what the gameplay was like, or who the characters were. None. All I knew about the game was that it was just four dudes in a car driving around and adventuring. I had also skimmed through a few reviews to look at the gameplay, just to make sure I wasn’t totally wasting my money.

And I didn’t. I enjoyed FFXV, despite what it sounds like I’m about to say. The four main characters are actually great. They’re all deep and real characters that really make some of the shitty things that happen to them tough to stomach.

It’s great how organic they really feel. I particularly remember a scene where Prompto, one of the main four, had a deep conversation with Noctis about how he’s an outgoing guy now, but deep down, he does it to hide his feelings of being annoying and worthless. If he could have it his way, he’d be shy all the time. In a way, I do the same thing, so I really connected with him. Prompto is my favorite of the four, by far.

The supporting characters, however, were meh. I liked Cindy and Luna the most out of the supporting characters, as they actually had some pretty solid background. Cindy’s parents passed away as a result of the war from years past, and Luna is the main character’s bride-to-be. You learn about her through the main character’s (Noctis’s) flashbacks, and it’s cool. By learning about her, you learn about Noctis, and the people that he surrounded himself with.

There are some deaths in the game. They’re big momentum shifts of the story, but I didn’t care. I just didn’t fucking care. They mentioned that some old guy that said maybe 3 lines died, and I was supposed to feel emotionally invested in this man? It felt weird. Still, not enough to make this game “bad.” I can deal with some corny appeal to emotion. This is a JRPG, not the Divine Comedy.

The worst thing about this game, though? I spent a solid 30 or so hours of this game from chapters 1 to 9, enjoying sidequests, adventuring, and doing the main quest at my leisure. I spent a solid 4 hours going from chapter 10 to 15 (the end of the game). Do you want to know why? Because this game puts you on rails from there on out. It even explicitly states that “you will never be able to return” several times.

If you ever want to piss me off, tell me the work I just did is actually useless. I felt like my time was wasted, after discovering that nothing would have changed had I not done those side quests. “But wait!” you say, “You’re stronger and have more weapons and stuff because you did those quests. That must help at least a little!”

Holy shit do I wish that was right, but the last 4 bosses are ALMOST ENTIRELY SCRIPTED. FUCKING SCRIPTED. I couldn’t change the outcome of those bosses if I fucking tried! You change into this dramatic anime-ass form, beat the bad guy, and the credits roll. Are you fucking me right now?

I worked for all this, learned all these mechanics, took the time to get all these extra weapons and quests and equipment, and you give me four fucking scripted bosses in a row? And then roll the credits?

I never thought I’d be more upset to finish a game than FFXIII, but XV managed. It’s essentially the antithesis of its predecessor; what was once a tube into open world, this tried to stuff the entire experience of an open world into a box, tie a ribbon around it, and call it a fucking day. Not how it works.

The game is gorgeous. The characters are nice. The gameplay is a lot of fun. The ending is fucking infuriating and put the most sour taste in my mouth. I want those 4 hours back, and Square Enix can get back to me when they make the last third of their game correctly.

Rant over.

TL;DR: FF games went from big on gaming to being a spectacle, and FFXV is a great representative of that shift through its infuriating attempt at an ending that tried to appeal to people’s tendency to love shiny things