#i did not like the gameplay in ff7 either

[helladventurers]

Watching ff16 while i wait for the sleep meds to kick in, and it's such a bold move of square enix to move final fantasy into exclusively action oriented combat when they don't know shit about how to make good action gameplay

[derekscorner]

Reloaded Rambling: Persona 3

Broken Fulfillment

I finished Persona 3 Reloaded last night and ever since I've been torn between rambling about it and sobbing because the ending never fails to wound me.

I'm not exaggerating for narrative emphasis nor am I joking, I cried. I am a grown man and I cried just as much last night as I did when I beat Persona 3 Fes in the late 2000s to early 2010s.

I can not express in words to you just how much the ending hurts me nor can I express how much I love it. That's why I am broken but find fulfillment...which is as on point with the death theme as anything else.

I even delayed finishing the game because I could feel the emotions and tears welling up as soon as the final month started. I even took a moment to note how ironic it was that the color palette literally grows gray throughout the month.

As 'The Fall' draws near and apathy syndrome grows the very world itself begins to white out yet I feel the story the strongest as it does.

Every interaction with Aigis is emotional pain because I knew what was coming. As she grew as a person, understood love, and found a reason in life I knew that she was about to have that ripped from her.

It wasn't just her either. P3 already had a lot of little moments in the final month as the cast finds their resolve and as you finish what social links you've started, everyone is finding a resolution, they're preparing for a battle they believe they may not win.

In fact, Reload improved on this more with it's link episodes. Everyone playing in the park, Ken's silly combat and coffee practice, the movies with Koromaru, Akihiko and Yukari, everything.

Several of these mini stories wrap up toward the end and it's only when you know about P3's ending that you realize why.

Constant Improvement

I'd even argue that Persona 3 is one of the few stories to properly be remade in recent years. They only added small things to make the story better, updated gameplay, and just overall refined the package.

That's the kind of treatment a remake should be given rather than the laziness you see in movies today or the bait & switch SE pulled with FF7.

And it was only upon typing this that I realized that P3 has had this treatment from the start. P3 Fes only ever expanded the original hit game. Even though many fans didn't like 'The Answer' they at least loved everything added to the Journey.

P3 was then made a classic for a third time with P3 Portable. The PSP limited some things but it is loved for it's female MC and the story changes.

Persona 3 has always been given a positive treatment each time it's tackled and it's so rare.

That cycles back into Reload. We fans had to beg and complain for years but they tackled the remake with every bit of love that you could've hoped for.

The only things they did to earn ere was not including 'The Answer' or the FeMC and as of the time I type this 'The Answer' will at least be added as DLC.

I don't intend to downplay the feelings of those who strongly desired the FeMC either, I am playing through P3P so I get it, I just want to point out that having so few complaints about a remake is so rare.

I went on this whole side tangent to emphasize how impressed I was with the things added. The episodes, a few scenes, it made the feelings that P3Fes gives me just as potent years later.

I'm an indifferent man, I rarely feel emotion let alone genuinely show it, but for years one thing that always broke me was P3's story. To see it remade so well meant a lot to me.

Memento Mori

When I first played P3 I was actually looking for P4. A friend on a KH forum had suggested it as a fan but I couldn't find it on sale. P4 was at the height of its popularity so I couldn't find it at all.

Instead, I found P3 and bought it. My friend was a bit annoyed and said P4 was better but I played it anyway and by God it broke me.

At that time I had a depression problem. I have had one since 8th grade at that point in my life so P3's theme of death resonated with my core.

I had no spoilers for this story then, I thought we were defying fate like any other RPG and looking back I should've expected something. People died often in P3, even main cast, and the story put time into seeing the cast process that.

The single dungeon of the game is Tartarus but no, nothing clipped for me till that final scene.

That final scene caused a whirlwind of emotion to hit me because I could sense something was wrong and your MC only gets weaker as Aigis affirms her feelings and goal in life and the music doesn't stop.

Just when the other SEES remember and rush to find you they arrive only to find you gone. That.Fucking.Broke.Me.

The credits then has the audacity to play an upbeat song as the credits roll. That was it, you died and the entire game clicked in my brain.

The entire game just hits me all at once. The MC's persona is Orpheus, you literally climb through Tartarus towards Nyx, death itself, and you do not come out of it unscathed.

The characters each dealt with death and found a reason to keep living while Aigis found humanity, in those tears I understood that the games message.

Death is not avoidable, even for your MC. His miracle came at a cost, his ultimate persona is the Messiah for a reason but that's not what truly important.

It's the journey to that ending. The MC helped everyone he had a bond with find a reason to live, the games story is a positive one not a sad one.

I felt my brain rewire that day, aside from truly depressing events in my life, I have never truly been depressed again. Not permanently.

Even if I live a life like a hermit I'll never just give up on everything because this story broke me and rewired how I see things.

More importantly for this post, my initial breakdown of emotion always resurfaces when I play P3. I find myself attached to Aigis in particular due to her specific journey and her role in 'The Answer'.

So when I say this remake only added to the positive I meant it. (you probably thought I forgot about that and went on a seperate tangent didn't you~)

Every little scene new or expanded they put in this game makes it stronger. I did not want January to end but I was already a few days in and the game was breaking me.

Koromaru's new linked stories, Shinji, and Aigis in particular were wonderfully done. Everything just ties together in a way that I can't explain to you in a singular post.

These things I've stated not only apply to added content but old as well. A complaint you'll see at times is how some Persona social links seem to contradict the casts main story progression or how some are weaker than others.

Persona 3, any version of Persona 3, does not have that issue. Whether you personally like them all my vary but they are all remarkably consistent with the Death theme, the theme of finding new direction or meaning in life, or they're harmless at worst.

A key part of the reason why is because the Fool & Judgement Social Links are tied to main story progression. The whole reason linked episodes were added was because the main SEES cast have character growth alongside those two arcana as the story progresses.

In P3Fes or P3Portable you could have friend/romance with some SEES based on MC chosen but their actual growth as a character is tied to the story. They grow with you.

And what you do learn on those friend/romance links doesn't contradict with that main story progression. You won't have a situation like in P5 where Ryugi feels like two different people between his personal social link and the main story.

No game is flawless mind you, all I mean to say is that P3 meshes better with it's links and main story. All those lives you help along the way just hit harder during the finale for it.

You can feel like it meant something.

I can't wait for 'The Answer'

I have no decent transition here nor am I sure I conveyed my feelings/meaning as well as I had hoped above. So before these P3 images and OST make me cry again I'll talk about 'The Answer'.

If nothing else, I do hope I have explained how important the main story is to me and I hope that it makes sense to you that I do not consider P3 complete without this story addition.

It had issues in P3Fes, there is no way around that, but given how well they handled this remake I hope they can give 'The Answer' that same love.

Because it's very important to Aigis as a character as well as to the overall themes of life & death. If you have not seen the scenes of The Answer or played P3Fes yourself you may want to skip from here on out btw.

You still there? Good because I need anyone reading to understand that 'The Answer' is key. It's key because it's about grief.

Many of the main cast had to deal with loss and grief in the main story so people find their relapse odd here but you have to remember that no one death is the same. You do not just become okay with important people dying.

You can always fall back on your sadness and that's what happens here. Aigis literally loses the will to live and becomes more machine like, Yukari quite frankly becomes bitchy, and the overall crew is somber.

They thought they had won, your MC lived till graduation. They had their best and worst times with him and he died for reasons that they do not understand.

'The Answer' is quite literally that answer. They learn why he died, Aigis finds her own answer to life, and I wish I could elaborate more but I'm torn between telling you and just hoping you play it.

It's an epilogue and one that I feel P3 needs to have to feel right. It makes your MC's sacrifice feel more worth while to know the cast will use his memory to live better rather than fall back into grief.

It does my soul better to know that Aigis won't give up on life.

I'm spent

There's more I could've said but I'm quite frankly to emotional to add more. I struggled to even be coherent with this and I'm not sure I was.

I consider this the best Persona game yet and I'll always love 3 more than the others. I simply didn't feel attached to the scooby doo gang from P4 and I'm too old to care about the teen rebellion in P5...plus their mascot characters literally agitate me.

I hope you play this game or already have and I hope you're willing to give 'The Answer' a shot. Bye now~

[hopeymchope]

I HOPW YOU ENJOY IT I LOVE THAT GAME

I'M HONESTLY WORRIED BECAUSE IT'S SO INSANELY HYPED LOL

Plus I'm worried about playing FF7 for... many other reasons that I'm now going to ramble about at EXCESSIVE LENGTH.

UNPOPULAR OPINIONS START!

FIRST: It's been, what, 27 years since this thing came out? And I've probably played a lot of stuff that took whatever FF7 did that was so groundbreaking and iterated/improved on it already, y'know? I doubt this game can ever be the earth-shattering experience it was for people of that initial release period.

SECOND: In my own opinion, the worst-aged generation of gaming (outside of the very first one) has to be the N64/PS1/Saturn gen, a.k.a. "fifth-gen." Pixel art from the older retro systems is kind of timeless-looking to me, and 2D game mechanics got locked down pretty quickly for the main titles of the day. Plus and the sixth-and-later generations still look fine and hold up on some level—by seventh-gen, we were already in HD! But fifth-gen polygonal graphics and pre-rendered assets are just... WOOF.

Get a load of those overworld character models in FF7 — they ain't got no alibi. And that's to say nothing of how awkward things typically were while we were first figuring out how to transition into 3D. Camera controls/angles, save structures, etc... it's all a fit fumbly.

So yeah, I don't have a lot of nostalgia/fondness for this gen, personally. My favorite games from this time period are typically the ones that dared to stick to 2D: Symphony of the Night, Mega Man X5, etc. And the exceptions are usually best experienced via latter-day ports that made big quality of life improvements or visual enhancements. I adore Ocarina of Time... but I'd definitely recommend that anyone new to it play the 3DS version.

THIRD: I ALSO don't like random battles. I know they're an RPG staple for many old-school titles, but like... I strongly prefer being able to see the enemy on the overworld before I enter the battle screen. Or at LEAST being able to tell where I can walk to either avoid or trigger potential random battles ala Pokemon games. I'd GREATLY prefer to not be jump-scared by a random battle every few steps. And although the modern FF7 ports have a trigger to supposedly turn off the random battles, it (A) doesn't seem to work half the time, and (B) using it will just leave me under-leveled in the long run.

And ALL OF THAT is why, for a long time, I waited for the FF7 remake. I figured that'd probably be my best introduction to the story and characters—bringing them to a new generation with a new presentation. But when the remake finally arrived, it wasn't a remake at all. Not only is the gameplay radically different, but even the story is heavily based in how it diverges from the original! Familiarity with the original game appears to be highly recommended.

And so... here I am.

I've only been playing FF7 for a couple nights now. Tuesday night was day one. And so far? I'm pleasantly surprised by how much I didn't already know in the story — I thought that cultural osmosis from years of Remake/Rebirth trailers and general gaming YouTube channels and overall gaming chatter would have spoiled every single story beat already. Certainly, the most famous event/twist in the game is something that was spoiled EVERYWHERE for years and years. But right now—having just swung away from a huge explosion on a big old crane-hook—I'm like "Huh, I didn't know that'd happen" pretty regularly!

Plus a general "Huh, I didn't know the overarching evil in this game was corporate capitalism." That last part has certainly aged like a fine wine. :)

[crystalelemental]

And so, after much delay, I have finished Final Fantasy 9. I don't have a clever intro, due to pizza-induced migraines, but I'm gonna talk about it anyway because man. That's a good game.

I remember hearing that FF9 was a sort of "wrapping up" of this era of Final Fantasy, in a sense. Or at least a tribute game to the rest of the series. Which. Tracks. There are a ton of little references to the rest of the series proper, particularly the 1-6 era. This is largely unimportant, but it likely contributes to my general enjoyment of the game, given that I prefer high fantasy over sci-fi.

To keep this segment brief: this is my favorite of the PS1 era and it's not close. An absolutely massive part of that is gameplay. FF7 and FF8 both had pretty interesting stories, but are held back severely by gameplay issues that drive me up a wall. 9 solves for a lot of it. A big part is that maps feel a lot smaller, and a lot easier to navigate. I know "hallway" is a thing that gets tossed around for 10 and 13 onwards, but I do not besmirch the noble hallway. It's easy to navigate and I'm not getting mad about random encounters. There are also just very few minigame moments where I have to worry about timers to press a button correctly. FF7 in particular is hilariously bogged down by such minigames, whereas 9...really only has the Frog Cid segment, which is the worst part of the game because of it.

9 also has a cast that feels distinct. 7 and 8's systems, while inventive, ultimately make every character feel identical. The difference between Aerith and Barret is honestly minimal, depending on material loadout. 9 returns to a sort of 4 and 6 vibe, where characters come with preconfigured roles, and it makes them stand out a bit more. The AP system also is not absolute, with characters learning different skills based on what's relevant, and learning them through different pieces of equipment. I think Eiko and Dagger also have completely different white mage spell lists and summons, too, with only the essentials being copied over. Everyone feels a lot more dynamic as a result.

This isn't to say 9's systems are without flaw, but they are much improved. My biggest issue is stealing being a central focus. I hate thief characters, and I hate wasting time on steals that are just going to fail, instead of aiming for proper damage. That said, almost nothing until the endgame is unique. In fact I'm...not sure anything that can be stolen is completely unique. So maybe that's a me problem. Usually, the goal is early access or reduction of cost later, which is a noble goal, but unnecessary. I think money is extremely tight in this game, and it's not a positive aspect of the game either. I found it really hard to stay on top of new equipment, while avoiding selling older stuff for synthesis. Though again, a lot of synthesis items repeated skills and weren't ultimately necessary. So maybe that is, again, a me problem.

I say this mostly because the annoying ones are optional. Chocobo Hot and Cold is...a treat. I did recently find out that you can, in fact, speed up the game's movement, which does not impact the 60 second timer, making it really easy to farm points. Coincidentally, I also got to learn that getting two Protect Rings, despite their +50% all elements reduction, does not reduce Shadow (or two 50% reductions don't stack to 100%), and nearly killed myself with Doomsday fighting Ozma. The worst part is Vivi only dealt like 3.5k with that move. Poor little dude is Not Great at this fight.

Oh yeah, this is also the only game where I beat the optional superboss. If that's any indication of preference for combat system. FF7 takes too long and is way too involved with the breeding system, I didn't want to stick around for FF8, so this is the only PS1 era game where I 100% completed stuff (catching 99 frogs pending). Freya's Dragon Crest spam rules.

I would also admit I don't love the AP system? It's more flexible than equipment for blocking status, but it does result in the problem of Ribbon not canceling all status by default, and thus making it really hard to negate things that don't have an AP solution to. Some of these things are also just really expensive, and I never felt like I had enough points for anything. I know that's half the point, you're supposed to choose what's needed, but exploration feels rough because I never knew what status resistances were critical. I tended to just keep Body Temp, Clearheaded, and Soft on at all times to compensate, and it worked out alright.

Anyway, enough about that. The bigger reason this is the easy favorite of the PS1 era is story. Which is saying a lot.

FF9's thematic focus is on life and death. There's already an excellent analysis of FF9's general theme here that will cover a lot of what I'd have to say better than I can here. As such, I'm left with stuff that impacted me that is aligned to that theme, but not talking about stuff that makes me feel like I'm copying someone else's homework. Specifically, how the game discusses what it means to live, and how to find meaning in a meaningless existence. This is primarily exemplified through Vivi, who is probably my favorite in the game. Every scene with Vivi is gold.

Vivi is home to the best scenes in the game. The first of which involves the Black Mage Village, where Vivi both learns of the shortened lifespan of the black mages, and where Zidane has a great story about his own history seeking his homeland only to realize where his home is, over Vivi wandering the village at night. Zidane believes Vivi is seeking a true home, somewhere he feels like he belongs, and questions if that will be here. This goes straight into the real gut punch of Vivi asking the sort of head of the village about when they "stop moving." The head, 288, calls Vivi kind for using their words, but expresses that Vivi understands what it means to die, before telling him they live for about one year.

The reason I love this isn't just how it sets up Vivi, but how it blends perfectly into the next two scenes in Madain Sari and the Iifa Tree. In Madain Sari, Vivi reflects on this, commenting that he doesn't think he does understand death. He questions what happens when you die, and wonders whether he goes back to where he came from, uncertain of why he's shaking as he contemplates this. Death is terrifying when you consider it actively, and as Zidane says earlier in the game, some things you can't think your way through. You just have to go with your heart.

This trail ends with the death of Brahne. As Brahne lays dying, Vivi's internal monologue talks about how she's caused so much suffering, he should be happy she's dead. Yet seeing Garnet, his friend, crying over her mother's body...he feels like crying too, and he doesn't understand what to feel about her death. What we're presented with is the seed at the heart of the game: that all life matters. That all life has significance. It starts easy with Brahne, who has direct relevance to Garnet, and ends with Kuja, who...let's be honest, no single individual will mourn. He's caused too much suffering. Yet Zidane saves him all the same, because his life, all life, is worth protecting.

Mikoto waxes philosophical about Kuja's connection to the world as well, noting that Kuja was the only Genome to defy his fate, paving the way forward for their current lives as individuals. Prior, they were only tools with a singular purpose, dictated by Garland. Despite the harm he caused to literally everyone, through all the death and destruction, life continued on and thrived.

It's a small scene, but one I really liked: when the Black Mages leave the village, enticed by Kuja's promise to expand their lifespan, three of them stay behind to care for a Chocobo egg. They couldn't just leave it on its own. Later, the egg hatches as they return, and the mages weep without knowing why. Later still, one of the Genomes arrives and questions the purpose of this creature. There is no real reason. The mages simply cared for it until it produced life. There is no real meaning, and no real purpose, but life remains important all the same.

I think that's a big theme of the game, is that dichotomy between purpose and meaning. Many major players, as well as two distinct races, are created for a singular purpose. Yet none who follow that purpose are happy, nor are they entirely conscious. Even characters who aren't created suffer this, be it Steiner's absolute adherence to duty, or Amarant's lack of understanding for what he's doing or what he wants. This is reflected best in Zidane, who is...kinda directionless. He's called out as shouting to affirm his existence, without knowing what the point of his life is, and it's kinda true. But while Zidane doesn't know his purpose, he finds meaning in his place with the theater group, and in his current quest with his friends. He is, in a way, the embodiment of "I was put on this earth to do one thing, but fortunately I forgot what it was, so I can do whatever I want."

In a similar vein is birthplace vs home. Many characters struggle to find where they came from, or are led to discover the place of their birth, but their true significance is in their home and the places and people they care for. Connection builds the meaning that makes life worth living. The opposite force, a sense of egocentrism, is when you give in to death. Kuja is prominently self-important, with his primary motivation in most of the game being to wrest control of both worlds from Garland to rule himself. When confronted with the knowledge that he will die, and likely soon, he determines the only course is absolute death for all living things. He cannot see beyond himself, and has no connection, no home, to ground his meaning to live. He cannot understand why Zidane would struggle to keep him alive after all he's done, because he cannot see beyond himself. Zidane is similar. He assumes a like compassion from Kuja, asserting that he would've done the same were their roles reversed before retracting that. But his belief in others and willingness to put faith and trust in others allows him to empathize so strongly that he can still find reason to preserve Kuja's life.

I'll be honest, this is one of the only Final Fantasy games this far that had me crying. I think what stands out about is that, despite being a bit more surface level than FF7 and FF8, all of its dramatic moments land. There are a few tidbits that I'm not a huge fan of, but by and large, there is little I can criticize about the story or its cast. Which is huge. FF7 and FF8 had the issue of a lot of the cast feeling pretty irrelevant, but outside of Amarant, I wound up really loving the whole cast. The dynamics and individual personalities really shine here. I even really like Kuja! I dunno, man, I just think he's neat! I love this scheming little bastard, he's so fun, and his pivot into despair actually lands. I know there's somewhat of a push now against the whole villain trauma as explanation for their actions, but I think it resonates more strongly when you can understand their motives.

I would also praise the use of eidolons in the story. Summons have been important in other games, but this is the only game thus far where they actually feel horrifying. Odin's complete annihilation of Cleyra and Atomos literally devouring Lundblum are shows of incredible power that make them stand out as a threat.

I'm running out of things to say, but this...really was excellent. Despite a rough opening that had me put the game down for a while before officially picking it up, once that ball got rolling, this became a standout for me. Absolutely huge fan of 9.

[zhansww]

After nearly 99 hours, I finally finished FF7 Rebirth yesterday. As far as the story goes, it left me with more questions than answers tbh. Mind you, maybe I'd know the answers if I'd played the og but I haven't. I only played FF7 Remake and now Rebirth. Anyway, I'm just writing down my thoughts on it and this might get long so I'll put the rest under a cut.

I'm gonna start with what I disliked about the game before getting into what I liked. Gameplay-wise: first and foremost, the mini games. The sheer amount of them annoyed me to no end. As someone who loves exploring every inch in a game, having to learn how to play and get good at minigames to complete certain side quests or explore certain areas definitely put a damper on my usual enjoyment of, well, exploring. And that's just the optional ones, there are also minigames that you can't skip. Instead of just letting me play the actual game, you have to, in between the normal gameplay, git gud at fifty different minigames. And ofc, I stopped (playing the optional ones, at least) at some point cuz it simply became too much but that just sucks. It again takes the fun out of it. The only minigames I enjoyed were Queen's Blood and the chocobo races. Maybe others like this variety of games within their game but to me, it became obnoxious. I actually usually love getting every trophy in a game but I already know I won't do that with this game mainly because of, you guessed it, the mini games. Which is a damn shame.

Another thing I disliked is the illusion of choice. Why bother giving me any choice at all regarding Yuffie when my answers ultimately don't matter? You can reject Yuffie three times but she'll join you anyway because obviously, it's not like they developed two whole different games, one with Yuffie and one without her. Same with the relationship counter thing. I did my best to get close to Aerith, to get that intimate date scene on the skywheeler in chapter 12. But Cloud can also have an intimate date with T*fa. And does the characters' relationship change afterwards? No. Cloud treats them exactly the same as he would have. Again, it's not like they bothered to make different cut scenes or add different dialogue in the rest of the game, depending on who you have that romantic date with. But then why even bother giving us a choice? Imo, you may as well get the date with Barret or Nanaki or Cait Sith. It's not like anything at all changes anyway. The story pretty much makes a romance between Cloud and Aerith canon, regardless. Which in itself is definitely not something I'm complaining about, but it's the illusion of choice or having choices that don't actually matter that annoys me. Also, what's with all the characters being spawned in all the time? I'm guessing they do that to make it more immersive but when you're in a group of seven people, they keep getting in your way, even more so when we're all on chocobos. And it's not even like the characters have any meaningful or important dialogue while you're out and exploring so it just feels completely unnecessary to have them around at all times. It was fine in FFXV cuz there were only four characters and they mostly walked behind Noctis anyway. But in this game, it was yet another point of annoyance for me.

When it comes to the story, there's a lot that I let slide cuz it's a game and cuz it's a fantasy world ofc... but Sephiroth is a really lame villain. Everyone else seems to be impressed by him but I don't find him special at all. Not to mention, he can conveniently teleport anywhere he needs to be at any given time. Also, the characters of Yuffie and T*fa really got on my nerves. Yuffie was just unlikeable with her stupid arrogance and materia-obsession. While T*fa is still a whole nothing burger. She reminds me of any basic, empty, supportive wife character. There's simply nothing else to her. I can't say I was too impressed by Cait Sith either but whatever. Cloud, Barret, Aerith and Nanaki are all good characters at least.

On that note, I wasn't too interested in any character in Remake but Rebirth really fleshed those four aforementioned characters out to the point that I feel way more invested in them now than before playing Rebirth. What I wonder about the most is who exactly Zack is and whether his whole section was even real or if that was all part of Aerith's "dream". Also, there's definitely something wrong with Cloud's mind... he seems to respond to trauma by pretending reality is something different..? Which makes him an unreliable narrator which in turns makes me wonder what else and how much of what he knows is distorting reality. When Biggs talked about Cloud to him, Zack seemed confused and said smth like "are you sure we're talking about the same Cloud?" which immediately made me wonder just how different Cloud was with Zack. If he really lost (or thought he lost) Zack, it could make sense for his personality to have changed afterwards. My point being, I am very intrigued and way more interested in Cloud's character now than I was before. I'm also really interested in Vincent Valentine. I saw him and I immediately wished he would join us. That didn't happen unfortunately but hopefully in the third part.

Anyway, the story and characters were an upgrade for me in this game. The gameplay is still mostly solid. The open world, with the different regions and terrains and climates and chocobos was gorgeous to explore albeit difficult to navigate sometimes. The minigames brought it all down, unfortunately. But I still ultimately enjoyed this and also still look forward to what's next in the FF series~

[mayohigan-orange]

Also, before I head off, I just... Don't understand game companies sometimes.

I'm going to be talking about stuff that isn't recent. Even the point I'll get to isn't recent.

But, whatever, y'know?

So, there's this company called Square Enix, and they make a series called Final Fantasy. They don't often bother with actual sequels, they just move on to the next game.

There are a few exceptions to this, though.

First off, FF7. Absolutely massively popular game, although I think it's overrated to hell and back and is... about passable by today's standards. And that's me being generous.

But yeah, it spawned a bunch of extra stuff, like Advent Children (which was alright), Dirge of Cereberus (it wasn't actually that bad) and Crisis Core (best thing to come out of FF7, in my opinion) as well as a bunch of other stuff.

It made sense. FF7 was absolutely massive, with people claiming it to be the best game ever (it really isn't) so it made sense that Square would want to capitalise on that (even if it was like years later) to make more money.

Next, we have FFX. Which was the first PS2 Final Fantasy and was also pretty widely praised. It also has Lulu so it gets bonus points for that. I've never actually finished it but I've played a fair bit of it, and I can see why people like it. Let's just not talk about the laughing scene. I don't care if it was meant to come off the way it did for reasons, that doesn't make it any better.

But yeah, after that, Square decided that a sequel would be a good idea, so along came FFX-2. Which I've also played a good chunk of and... I'm not gonna say it's better than FFX, but I do think it's better than people give it credit for. Luckily, nowadays people seem to be a bit kinder to it.

So, what game would be next for a sequel?

...Well actually FFXII, but I actually kinda like that game, and ADORE Revenant Wings, so I'm not going to be talking about that game right now. I really should play through it again sometime.

No, I'm going to talk about FFXIII. A.K.A. MANY MANY HOURS OF CORRIDOR SIMULATOR BEFORE YOU GET TO ANYTHING GOOD.

Most people did not like FFXIII. For fairly obvious reasons. Lightning was basically an expy of Cloud and Squall, while having none of the spark that make either character likeable. And most of the characters apparently didn't come off much better because... if you talk to people about the FF games, they will generally be able to mention one or two characters that are really good. FF6 has Locke and Celes, FF7 has Tifa and Aerith, FF10 has Auron and Rikku...

I've never really heard anyone talk about the characters in FFXIII. And I have talked about it with people who played it, they just... didn't have anything to say about the characters. Which in itself is a huge issue.

If you're created characters so boring that people don't even want to talk about them to illustrate the character's bad points, you've SEVERELY fucked up. Like, I can only vaguely recall a couple of characters, like... Snow and Serah, I think? And I couldn't tell you a damn thing about them. And before I keep going, no, I haven't played FFXIII but I've watched a friend play part of it and I've seen part of a stream on it. Couldn't really stand to watch it for too long because of how boring it is.

Apparently EVENTUALLY it opens up into a open world thing but the fact you have to go through HOURS of Corridor Simulator kinda makes it feel like Square's just going 'fuck you, you want freedom? just 11 more hours to go until freedom, fucker!'

And honestly if you still want to play by the time it becomes a more open-world affair, you're a masochist.

So yeah. Most people did not like FFXIII. They didn't like the gameplay, they didn't like the story, they didn't like the characters.

So what did Square Enix do?

"LET'S MAKE TWO SEQUELS TO THIS GAME THAT ABSOLUTELY NOBODY LIKED."

Just... why? Apparently it has something to do with Lightning disappearing which, y'know, good riddance to a poor character. And then Lightning Returning which... why can't Square Enix do that with characters people actually like and want to see back. *points at Geno not being in Smash*

It's just... I don't get why Square decided making two sequels to FF game that nobody liked was a good idea. Especially when it seems to be centralized around an extremely boring character like Lightning. I've never really been able to get an answer about that, either. Even people who 'like' FFXIII haven't been able to give me a proper answer on why FFXIII-2 and Lightning Returns exist. I guess maybe FFXIII sold well, but it was a Final Fantasy game. It was going to sell well. They should have waited to see what the fans said about it and then decided "hmm maybe we should just move on, the opinion about this game is... 'mixed', at best."

Anyway, I guess the rants over now. XP

[spidersonicbatl0]

Debunked Tyrranux deviantart post “these jackasses actually copied the will u”

I’m a PlayStation fan, so when I find this post. I was speechless. This is so dumb it make the humans in helluva boss, look like dr doom. For context this is a response to PlayStation may 2023 state of play. Btw here a link to the post https://www.deviantart.com/tyrranux/journal/These-jackasses-actually-copied-the-Wii-U-964209907 (note: do not harass this person please)

Ok let begin

“One minute in and they're already sucking their own dicks. They really are the video game equivalent of Elon Musk.....” so making a flashing intro is sucking one dick. By that logic e3 show have flashing intro or reveal is sucking dick.

“Define irony, a video game all about eating the rich published by a company notorious for being comparable to Elon Musk as far as inflated ego, bitterness towards competition and general market share value....” even tho I never saw the show. The boys from what hear make funny/criticize consumerism, big company’s and company being diverse to get a quick dollar. And you know who own the boys tv series……Amazon.

“They fucking would if they could. Lord knows they did the same with FF7 and SF5....” to explain what she talking about. The YouTuber who is react to this say “yes chat this gta6”. But the thing is final fantasy 7 came out on the ps1, so making it a PlayStation exclusive for a time make sense. Same with the crash n sane trilogy. Also mega man start as Nintendo exclusive series, But capcom later made mega man x4 came out on the sega Saturn and PlayStation 1

“Soooooooo they aren't gonna shy away from the heavy dosage of anti fascist society themes that defines Starship Troopers as a story?” Detroit: become human: am I a joke to you

“Dammit that's a really good name for a game dev studio XDXDXDXDXDXDXDXD9:40 - I was about to say this looked familiar..........so it's also gonna be on Xbox then?” You know Nintendo have show third party game in Nintendo direct before right?

“By the by this is also slated for Xbox and Nintendo Switch, I checked. And I only bring it up because, well, I didn't compare Sony to Elon Musk for nothin'.” 👆 say response as above

“Either that or their own Fortnite with black jack and hookers, that way they don't have to pay Epic Games to feature Final Fantasy or Kingdom Hearts characters in a competing title.” 🤦 epic games would actually have to pay money to square to use final fantasy. Heck square only own half of kingdom hearts, the other half is own by Disney.

“Because we're talking about a company so creatively bankrupt that they actually made a "remake" to Final Fantasy 7.” Re2 remake change the gameplay and story beats. But capcom call it a remake when it more of a reimagining of re2.

“Also how nice of Square to just hand Sony their own version of Splatoon on a silver platter so that Sony didn't have to make one themselves. Cue all the Sony ponies decrying Splatoon as dead and there being nothing to play on Nintendo.” 😟 not every PlayStation fan is a toxic fan. The same go for Xbox fans and Nintendo fans. Toxic fans like that are mock by non toxic fans. Like you Tyrranux

“Oh look it's that one game that's already overshadowed by FF7 Rebirth, setting it up for a descent into the pit of irrelevance. And it seems this is also a Playstation exclusive so it's double dead on arrival, if it was also on Xbox it might have stood a chance....” they a lot PlayStation exclusive ip that people remember fondly ape escape, jak and daxter, sly cooper, infamous, resistance, kill zone, ratchet and clank, twisted metal, midevil, little big planet and god of war. Also imagine being such toxic Xbox/Nintendo fangirl, you think that any ps exclusive is going to fail. It not like god of war 2018 is a considered the best game of all of time and won 2018 game of the year

“And I'm glad I'm not seeing yet even more Breath of the Wild but now more heavily sci fi. Wait isn't that just Horizon Zero Dawn? Yep XD” breath of the wild have gameplay different to horizon. Here they Wikipedia pages and at the gameplay section https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Legend_of_Zelda:_Breath_of_the_Wild

“Dude, this is Sony we're talking about, the bigger shock would be that it doesn't end on something stupid like that.”

“Oh my God these morons really are just copying the Wii U! And lemme guess, this is gonna cost up to 500 dollars as well?! Jackasses.....” 1 the Wii U gimmick is that the game pad is use to do stuff on the tv. This doesn’t have that feature. 2 sega in the 90s made the game gear, it literally just an sega gameboy and Disney infinity and Lego dimensions are skylanders games, but with pre existing ip’s. 3 the Kinect

“Ah yes, the game I'm not even allowed to play because Sony, the selfish fucks, would rather continue testing the patience of Disney than finally part with the Spider Man movie licence. Skip.” Marvel approach Xbox on making a marvel game, but xbox say no. Marvel so when to sony pitch a marvel game, sony say yes and let insomniac games decide what character the game will be about. They pick spider man because the studio loves the character. If insomniac wanted to make a game based on daredevil it would ps4 exclusive. Plus Disney have a deal to use spider man in the mcu, so they no reason to buy the rights.

That was bad. Anyway I going to have rest now. Oh Tyrranux if you say I’m am Sony fanboy

Here a picture of my Nintendo switch with my games

[sillyfudgemonkeys]

apparently persona 3 is rumorred to be getting a remake... https://twitter.com/IdleSloth84_/status/1572869029823676417

KFLDJSF;KJ;FK And here I thought hope was dead.

I can see them announcing it officially a year or two from now (as they....probably should....as not to conflict with their ports).

If they announce it sooner....well...I told them to pull a FF7 guess they decided to finally do it. Not timed the best but whatever. These ports should've been a thing, for the PS4, sometime after P5's first release in Japan. THEN they could've slowly worked on getting them ported on other devices.

Then by now, we would've had the ports out for awhile, and announcing a remake wouldn't be so weird.

P1/2/3(P) are the Persona games I think really need remakes, but I'll take remakes of all the games I'm not picky. uwu Esp since I think they can still add new content to P3/4 (actually finally did a post for P3 additions I'd like to see here), and P1/2 (mobile games stuff) and just a nice change in graphics and gameplay would be cool.

As long as the only similarity to P3's remake to P5 is "New 3D environments" (aka stuff like P3D and improved on that) and QOL stuff (aka, making it easier to get free time and max SLs, and thus give us more time to do other stuff, either optional events or otherwise).

My only issues (as long as P5's finger prints aren't all over P3 that is), is if this gets announced before we even get a PORT of P1/2.

[brokengem]

So you played some ffvii intermission or Integrade as well? Damn I had a feeling Sonon would die too freaking Square 😡. However someone pointed out he technically got taken by Nero.. he could still be alive down the line? Yuffie Sonon gameplay was slick asf!!! I beaten Weiss and Ultimate Weapon 2.0 those fights were lit!! But damn did I die a lot.. especially in hard mode I got WRECKED by Weiss and Nero until I finally found a pattern that allowed me to beat them

Hell yeah! I just played the Intermission since I had played the Part 1 of the Remake last year when it came out. Though I did just start up another playthrough of Part 1 cause I never finished getting all the trophies and I want to do that.

Right! Like not even 5 minutes after his introduction, I just kind of fell in love with him. Then I had the 'Oh god. They purposely made me love you just to take you away from me' moment. We were fools! We knew he was going to die and they stole him from us.

Oh I definitely agree. His 'death' was by far one of the saddest things I've seen but I don't think he's gone. I was actually talking to friend about that last night. Sonon's body didn't disappear like the rest of Nero's victims that were shown. So he may come back. We may have to fight against him later on down the road and either experience his death all over again or rescue him (I'm hoping for the later. I really enjoyed his character...but SE does love there tragic shit)

Wooo, congrats! Man, I haven't played through the game in Hard Mode yet. I'm actually pretty terrified to do so. I enjoy gaming but I've never been super hardcore. So I usually just skip hard modes and play normal modes (which even then I can get my ass handed to me because I hate dodging things.) BUT I love the FF7 games so much. It's probably my favorite game series of all time. So I really want to make the effort to actually do Hard mode this time of round. I want to actually Platinum it. (But seriously games, please...please stop making completing a game in hard mode one of the dame trophies >.>)

[silver-wield]

Did you see that Reddit thread about C and A and what they actually mean to each other? I gotta say, I get super annoyed that so many people try to portray their relationship as either being in love already or as Aerith having this super special effect on Cloud. Like where? I just don’t see how she’s supposed to be any different from Jessie. He doesn’t treat her in any special way. He doesn’t trust her more than others, isn’t especially nice to her. He protects he as he would anybody else. (1/2)

He’s also not attuned to her feelings at all. When she’s talking to herself in the ghost graveyard about the ghosts just waiting for someone to find them, she’s obviously thinking how she’s similar but Clouds just like “what are you talking about?” and Tifa is the one who later says they found her. And it’s again Tifa that tells Aerith in her room they’ll find a way together. So what are these people seeing that I’m missing? Where’s the special bond? (2/2)

I don't go on reddit, bit I've seen the cult there spewing their usual nonsense garbage in an attempt to gaslight the fandom. Never works. The people over there are savage af and shut that shit down.

Doesn't matter how often we point out how annoyed Cloud is with Aerith they act like it's live at first sight, but also slow burn, but also he confessed his love within 36hrs of meeting her and the devs will make Cloud save her this time cause FF7 was always an otome and people just didn't realise 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️

Whenever I get tired of their bullshit I just replay the game for the millionth time or look at all the hilariously grumpy faces Cloud pulled at Aerith in 40hrs basic gameplay lol

[icharchivist]

i mean it’s not like i didn’t know it was how it was going to end. The game was entierely spoiled to me on the few weeks following its releases.

I’d even say it was spoiled before that, because Hajime Tabata, the lead dev of the game, had mentioned that Noctis was his favorite character, and the guy has a track record for killing in horrible ways any characters he calls his favorite.  and it’s not like i trust the guy who made Zack’s death /this/ horrible in crisis core, dooming my life for ever when i was 13 and changing my life (i’m not even kidding about this) (like yeah maybe the original ff7 team are the ones who killed Zack but it’s Tabata that made me a crying mess over it so what gives)

but living through it is a whole other experience, after hours and hours of getting attached to the boys and for what... and for what.

I should clarify before moving on that when i say my life is ruined, that i’ll never know happiness again, ect... all expression of sadness, those are not actually things i’m mad about lmao. I love a good tragedy when i see one, and sad stories stick with me a lot. I like to think about them. Tragedies bring forward hope, love, care, they put attention in making sure the personal connection runs deep in order to connect with the viewer. I value this sort of story a lot. In sadness, in grief, there is catharsis, and there is a reminder that there were so much things to care for if it hurts that much to lose it. When a story makes me feel that way, i feel strongly for it. Especially when sadness is born out of love, not out of shock.

.... this is also specifically what i learnt from watching Zack’s death scene in ff7cc so you kinda see how i came back full circle on this one lmao

so like, i like feeling that way, though i need to be in a proper headspace for it. So when i complain about having my heart ruined, this is out of love and care and i appreciate the story that made me feel so much love and care that it makes me feel that way.

We’re good? good.

okay because i’m emotionally ruined over all of this.

honestly i don’t think i’ll manage to be too coherent about it. I’ll just say i think ff15 did a wonderful job with the story it wanted to tell. I think a lot of the gameplay mechanisms worked to impact the player and have sink in the biggest feelings one could have.

I’d just say for the endgame i have a sliiiiight nippick that Ardyn’s fight was kindof underwhelming, especially after some amazing bossfights earlier in game. That said, the whole story around the scene was so painful that i don’t mind that much either. It wanted to focus more on the emotional punch and i value that, and it worked.

(on this note i think my favorite bossfights must have been Titan and Leviathan by a lot, those were a blast).

onto the good things, the bros relationship never failed me at all, i’ve always loved every second of it. Every time i was falling more for their dynamic, i would be dawned by knowing how it ends, and knowing the grief and suffering that awaited them. Actually seeing it filled my expectations and more. I couldn’t stop crying.

The last few fights with the past kings and the way each bros act in it? are fucking cool. tho apparently the scenes are DLCs exclusive? Thanks i have them all but maaan they really helped making an emotional blow.

I’ll come back to this game, for sure. I mean i have the DLCs to finish, esp ep Ignis (my beloved), but i’ll enjoy replaying and ignoring anything past chapter 8 - i mean. yeah. coughs. 

but it’ll be so painful ahah.

anyway on that note it’s actually kinda. a certain feeling to have finally finished it. ff15 was always a game that overwhelmed me to think about because FF tends to be so vast and never ending and they made this one an open world gdi! i was so scared, but it went easy in the end. 

I have this habit to never finish games because i give up before the final boss, in a way of never letting it ends... though i’ve finished quite a few games ahah. but it’s wild to have it join the list of finished games.

Anyway it’s all over the place but it was a blast, i loved it, and i will need to be mourning for a bit

thanks for sticking around everyone o7

[mrstifastrife]

Why I Shipped CloTi Based Off of Advent Children

Before I start, I figure that I should add some background to explain why I chose ACC in the first place and not any other installation. I don’t know if the “Keep Reading” will show up, but know that my reasons start after the 5th paragraph and the line break.

So I was born in 1999, 3 years after the release of the original Final Fantasy 7 game. I didn’t really grow up on video games. I had a PS2, a PSP, and a Nintendo, but I normally played the games that were popular for younger children at the time. My only source of Final Fantasy was through Advent Children due to exposure from my sister. Based solely off of that, I was under the impression that Final Fantasy was a series of movies following different story arcs. Final Fantasy 7 was the only one that really stuck out to me story-wise. 

I should add that I am caught up on the story of Final Fantasy 7 by watching gameplays, of which include FF7 OG, Crisis Core, and Dirge of Cerberus. I have also finished playing the first installation of the Remake, with full intention of completing it throughout. 

Let it be known that much like many others, I was a very impressionable child and most of what I loved back then still carries on to this day. CloTi, or as I see people calling their ship now “The Stargazers” (which I love), was probably one of the first, if not the first, ship that I had ever become obsessed with, as I’m sure many of you have as well with any of the FF7 ships (which I fully support despite not being an avid fan). Perhaps some of my statements may be biased, so if you do not agree with what has been said, that is okay. We are all entitled to our own opinions. Also, most of what I say has most likely not been proven, but it is a post about my personal opinion and experience with FF7: ACC. 

Without further ado, here is why I shipped Cloud and Tifa together based off of Advent Children. Remember that these are my personal opinions and that this is my personal interpretation of the movie. There will be pictures as well because I will never get over it!

1.) Cloud and Tifa have their own little family together.  

When I first watched the movie with my sister, I actually thought Cloud and Tifa were a couple that was struggling to make amends, not only with each other, but with the past. While my perspective of this movie may not be accurate, this was what my mind interpreted back then. 

Even if Tifa and Cloud weren’t married, even if Marlene and Denzel weren’t related to each other or the latter two biologically, they were still a family. They were all each other’s home. Did Cloud find solace in Aerith’s church while he suffered with geostigma? Yes, he did. She was a big part in his life, just as much as she was a big part in everyone else’s lives. Does that mean Cloud doesn’t value Tifa, Marlene, or Denzel? Absolutely not, and that will be explained in another point I will make. 

Tifa and Cloud may not have been together in ACC, but you have to admit that their relationship was fairly close to domestic if they were living under the same roof providing for each other and two children. Even if they were just two friends, they essentially carried the responsibilities of a married couple. 

Also, might I add that every couple runs through problems, so the idea that they couldn’t be together for having disputes is invalid. Not to bring up personal experience, but my boyfriend and I are in a very loving, supportive, and healthy relationship. Despite that, we still have arguments and moments of vulnerability. 

BONUS: 

(Peep the picture of the four of them + the flowers for Aerith and Zack I’m assuming!!)

2.) The little ways Cloud cares for Tifa and Tifa cares for Cloud. 

A lot of people liked to believe that Cloud didn’t care about Tifa, or anyone else, in favor of Aerith because he stayed at her church while he had geostigma. I have to admit that my first time watching, I was under the impression that Aerith and Cloud were in a relationship before she passed away and that he was trying to move on from her with his new family. (Disclaimer: The first time I watched the movie, it was out of context and I had no idea it was a continuation of a game until after I researched it). 

HOWEVER, upon watching it over and over (as it was my favorite movie back then), I started to see that he may have had feelings for Aerith or a special connection to her, like he did with Zack, that made it hard for him to move on because he personally felt responsible for their deaths. I will not dismiss that Cloud most likely had feelings for Aerith, but that does not mean he cannot move on with Tifa or be with Tifa otherwise. Same way that people like to argue that Aerith could move on from Zack with Cloud, right? Do we see how it can be contradictory to say that but not allow it for Cloud with Tifa?

Anyway, I digress. 

If Cloud didn’t care for Tifa, or anyone else for that matter, why would he bother listening to voicemails? The excuse that he only does for delivery jobs seems a bit dismissive of Cloud’s character. Yes, he seems cold and distant, but he cares for people, even if he doesn’t say it out loud. You’re purposely ignoring his character development if you choose to use his aloofness for the sake of your ship. 

Think about it this way: there’s a voicemail to Cloud from Barrett that’s basically updating Cloud on how he’s doing. Cloud wouldn’t have bothered to listen to it if he didn’t care. Which brings me to the point that he wouldn’t have listened to both of Tifa’s voicemails all the way through if it was just for the job either.

I know this post is meant to talk about how I ship Cloud and Tifa, but I have to add in the fact that Cloud does care for her despite what others may think. Just because he ran away and just because he doesn’t call her back, it doesn’t mean that he doesn’t care for her. Have you ever felt so guilty about something that you felt like you didn’t deserve anyone’s company? In Cloud’s case, he shut people out because he cared so much for them that he didn’t want them to get hurt by him or be burdened by his guilt or his geostigma. 

ALSO, the CloTi church scene??? I’m talking about that in the next point, but that’s a major giveaway of Cloud’s feelings for Tifa and in this case, how much he cares for her. 

As for Tifa, her way of caring for Cloud is more obvious because her personality is more transparent. I’m not saying Tifa is known for being completely forthright, but in comparison to Cloud, she is more direct. For example, the voicemails I mentioned earlier: she asks him how he’s doing and she tells him to be careful. 

(Voicemail #1: “You got a call from Reno. He’s in Healen. Says he’s got work for you. Cloud, how have you been?”)

(Voicemail #2: “Reno called again. He says to hurry, and he sounded kind of strange...Be careful, okay?”)

She may be upset with him for running away from his problems but she’s not heartless and she still cares. 

I want to add as well that she adds each line almost like she’s expecting a response. Yes, she sounds defeated in the beginning when she mumbles, “He’s not here anymore” BUT the way she leaves voicemails makes it seem hopeful that one day he will answer her phone call back. I know, I know, it’s a little heartbreaking, but it’s evident that she’s not going to give up on him even though he’s been running away from her and their family. 

Also can we talk about her and Marlene in the church when she replies to Marlene’s “We can’t [go home]! Cloud’s not here yet!” with “I know, sweetie. I miss him too.” THIS MOMENT just screamed family to me. (I do have to admit though, I wish Denzel wasn’t left alone, but his story arc was well worth it.)

Last but not least, I know Tifa’s lecture ends in her getting upset with him (which I get into later), but at the very beginning, before Cloud tries to pass off the children to Reno and Rude, she’s very gentle and hopeful. She wants to fight with him but becomes doubtful that they’re a real family after a lack of response. HOWEVER, Cloud still admits to them being family after, although, it’s included with him admitting his shortcomings.

(Tifa: “We can help each other, I know we can. [No response from Cloud] I guess that only works for real families.” Cloud: “Tifa...I’m not fit to help anyone. Not my family, not my friends. Nobody.”)

If you’re upset with Tifa over how she responded to Cloud later on in this scene, you need to look at it deeper in context and take into account their conversation when they first wake up (the one I mentioned above), where she’s concerned for him and trying to help him. 

I know there’s more scenes where they show that they care for each other, but please bear with me because this part was just their little moments and I’m getting to specific scenes where they express their feelings for each other in grander, more obvious gestures.

3.) THE CHURCH SCENE. 

THIS SCENE IS SO IMPORTANT FOR CLOTI SHIPPERS. I really don’t think I have to explain its significance, but I’ll just dig a little deeper since I’m sure this is one of the biggest scenes for CloTi in ACC. 

If you don’t think that he cares for Tifa, you missed the entire part of the movie where he sees her at the church and runs to her. I thought that was a really pivotal moment because it was ONE of the first times in the movie where he expresses any other emotion besides indifference. (I’m emphasizing “one of the first times” because 1.) his face changes when Rufus references Marlene and Denzel and 2.) right before Tifa fights Loz, he has a flashback of Zack and feels anguish/regret)

When I was younger, and of course now, this scene was so important to me. From the beginning of the movie (at least out of context when you watch just the movie like I did), you're given the impression that Cloud doesn’t care much for anyone on the surface of the planet with how indifferent he is. When he sees Tifa semi-conscious on the floor, however, he’s straight up terrified that he may have lost someone precious to him like he had countless times before. The look on his face says it all. 

If Tifa wasn’t at all important to Cloud, he wouldn’t have had such an emotional reaction to seeing her unconscious. He’s quick to call her name, run to her, and pick her up. This is the woman he wanted to be a hero for and this is a woman he swore he would protect, but when it came time for it, he came late. Imagine the feelings he has swirling inside of him at this point. 

I am by no means romanticizing the anguish that Cloud is feeling at the sight of Tifa hurt, I just think that this scene is very telling of their relationship at the current time. He took so long to get to her that he was almost too late. Unfortunately, I think that this scene made him feel like he was even more of a burden, which was why he was so willing to run away before going to the Forgotten City for Marlene and Denzel.

Also, we know now that the flowers shown in this scene are a symbol of reunion, as explained in the Remake. It’s unfortunate that the first time they are reunited in the movie, Tifa is injured and Cloud suffers a geostigma attack, but given their situation, this scene is just a perfect representation of the hurt they’re feeling at seeing each other.

(CAN WE TALK ABOUT HOW THEY’RE FACING EACH OTHER BY THE WAY?)

4.) After Cloud gets a “lecture” from Tifa, he starts to understand the error of his ways and it becomes a stepping stone for him to confront his feelings. 

Let me start off by saying that Cloud waited for Tifa to wake up, instead of leaving her while she was unconscious. Does that seem like something he would do if he didn’t care for her?

Tifa’s words mean more to him than one can comprehend. If you think that she too harsh during the scene where she’s telling him not to live in the past, you have to realize that when she was hurt immensely by Cloud leaving, so she shouldn’t be expected to act like nothing happened at all. I don’t know how long Cloud had been gone for (because the timing was not specified), but it was long enough to leave an impact not only on Tifa, but Denzel and Marlene. She’s not only speaking for herself, she’s speaking on behalf of the others in their family that were hurt by his actions. You can’t blame her for being upset either because Cloud was telling Reno and Rude to save Denzel and Marlene instead of stepping up himself. 

I hope you realize that Aerith and Zack didn’t want Cloud to keep feeling guilty over their deaths. If they were able to, they would be having this same conversation with him (which they did, might I add!!! Aerith quoted “Dilly dally, shilly shally” herself!!!) Yes, he is allowed to grieve for as long as he wants. Feelings are complex when you lose people close to you, but does that mean he can abandon his family at a time when they need him too? I know he also left because he felt he would be a burden because of his geostigma, but the conversation I’m focusing on is “Which is it? A memory or us?” 

With all my rambling, you’re probably wondering “Why is Tifa getting upset with Cloud one of the defining moments of CloTi for her?” Well, my answer is that this whole conversation is just so raw and real. I’ve always been a sucker for domestic and realistic couples, where either character isn’t afraid to be honest with their partner. (SEE: Jackie Burkhart and Steven Hyde, Amy Santiago and Jake Peralta, Crowley and Aziraphale, Leslie Knope and Ben Wyatt, and SO many more) It cannot be said that Cloud wasn’t being honest with Tifa because she was the first one he admitted all of his thoughts to. He opened up to her first, which helped him later on to confront his inner demons. Notice how he was able to talk to Aerith after he talked to Tifa. 

Before you decide that Tifa is insignificant to the plot of both OG and ACC, remember that she is the reason that Cloud retained all his memories through the Lifestream and for ACC, as I mentioned before, she was the reason he was able to be honest about his thoughts, which helped him slowly come to terms with Aerith and Zack’s deaths, along with the insecurities about himself. She’s making him admit it and put it out there, so that it isn’t stuck inside himself. 

A lot of you may have seen this as another reason to hate Tifa, for putting Cloud in his place, but this made me love her even more. Instead of allowing him to continue moping, she reminded him that he can’t be stuck in the past. Cloud needed that wake-up call more than anything.

Imagine if his geostigma hadn’t been cured. His last moments would be of him wallowing in his guilt instead of living life to the fullest with the people that were trying to be there for him. 

That’s why I thought this scene was so important for CloTi. It was eye-opening and real and it reminded Cloud that there was more to life than himself. 

5.) The fight with Bahamut Sin where Cloud acknowledges Tifa’s “dilly dally shilly shally” shows that he really took her words to heart and actually used it to confront his inner demons. 

I know that the two scenes mentioned above were probably the most notable CloTi scenes in ACC, but let me bring this one up. In terms of favorites, this by far surpasses any other scene in the movie. Not just because of the CloTi content but because it’s when the group comes back together to defeat Bahamut Sin (and yes, I’m including how Aerith was there to give Cloud a boost as well!!)

Why is it my favorite? Let me break it down for you. 

So Cloud comes at the last second to rescue both Tifa and Denzel. As Tifa hops onto the back of Cloud’s bike, he responds, “Sorry that it took me so long.”

Why is this important? Because it’s in response to Tifa saying, “You’re late” when he found her at the church. He never got to say that to her with everything going on, but during one of the most important battles they had and after forgiving himself, he immediately references it without a second thought. This scene just shows that he’s starting to take every lesson thrown at him to heart. Not just Tifa’s, but Aerith’s, Vincent’s, Marlene’s, and even Reno and Rude. He’s starting to acknowledge his mistakes and take responsibility for them, and most importantly, he’s not running away anymore. 

Cloud: “Marlene will be safe. I took her home.”

Again, another reference to the church scene. Whether it was intentional or not, his first words to Tifa were a reply to her when she calls for Marlene. 

THEN, it ends unprompted with Cloud saying, “I feel lighter. Maybe I lost some weight. All that dilly-dallying.” 

I feel like I don’t have to explain that one. Who’s the one who told him that in the first place? Of course, he would bring that up to Tifa because she was the one who said it and believed in him all along. 

I know, I’m probably overreacting from this scene, but I think it’s just powerful to have heavy references to the church scene because there were so many unspoken words between them at the church scene. So many missed moments and unfulfilled promises that were lost after Cloud ran away. He may not have made up for it, but by acknowledging her pain, he’s actively trying now. Even though things aren’t perfect, progress is just as important.

I always thought the message of this movie was moving forward, and forgive me if I’m reading too much into this, but I always interpreted geostigma as trauma. 

How is everyone able to move on from all the repercussions that came from fighting on the planet? How is EVERYONE able to move on healthily from Aerith’s death? How can Cloud cope with Zack’s death? What happened to Sephiroth, Loz, Kadaj, and Yazoo when they failed to move on from the bitter feelings they felt? How is anything going to be solved if you aren’t able to move on and forgive yourself? 

I personally think that even in the OG FF7, I had the belief that Tifa and Cloud had strong feelings for each other (that surpassed Cloud’s feelings for Aerith), but that’s my opinion of course. Even so, if the argument is that Aerith was meant to be the love interest for Cloud in OG FF7, I don’t see why ACC couldn’t be him moving on with his family after everything that’s happened. I keep hearing that “Aerith is allowed to move on from Zack because he died and she needs someone too,” but does that mean Cloud is forced to live in perpetual guilt, sorrow, and longing for her? I personally think that’s a major reason why ACC was created: because Cloud has every right to move forward in his life without feeling guilty and that’s okay (and I’m not just speaking in a romantic sense either). It’s obviously not confirmed that Cloud and Tifa are together in ACC because Square likes to keep it ambiguous, but the numerous times I’ve watched it, I’ve always just been under the impression that they were. 

However, romance aside, I really think this movie is a great addition to the FF7 compilation. It deals with acceptance, forgiveness, coping, and moving on. 

Anyway, I don’t know if any of this post makes sense, but I wanted my first post to be an explanation on my CloTi stance, especially based on one source that I consistently go back to. Please hop in my ask box with your thoughts on ACC, CloTi, the Seventh Heaven family, etc. 

Any hateful comments will be addressed with accordingly, and may be deleted. 

I don’t remember if Tumblr is anything like Twitter, where the names show up despite not being tagged, but please let me know! I’ll censor names that don’t have to do with CloTi if it’s clogging up posts for other ships or people. 

Let it be known that I am NOT an anti for any character in the FF7 compilation other than Hojo. 

All love is welcome!

[colorisbyshe]

aww didnt u like the ff7 remake?

Oh, I loved it! But it’s... not a complete game, it’s less than a 1/3rd of a remake. Which is fine! I loved playing it.

But Hades is a retelling that has completely reinvented the lore (not always in the best ways, *stares at Persephone*) and nailed the balance between roguelite gameplay and storytelling. It was the perfect gameplay loop where losing felt like winning. EVERYTHING you did either helped complete some prophecy or furthered a relationship or empowered your character, even losing.

An indie studio practically mastering the appeal of video games (lore, character leveling, smooth gameplay loops, good character design, fulfilling plot beats) is more notable than an old video game being made with a new engine.

And I KNOW FF7R already brought in plot divergences and will involve even more (to the point where I think assuming you can tell how the game will end is a bit naive), but it’s a bit different than taking old legends and completely reinventing them.

Hades is 4 series of ten similar rooms over and over and over again and it got me to play for 100 hours. It made me laugh, it made me cry, it made me google if what I was shipping was incest (it wasn’t, thank you supergiant for clarifying) and then got me to have a bisexual lead character with a bf and a gf who approve of ecah other and talk about how tehy’re okay with multiple partners... it made me swoon over patrochilles again. It had a strong themes and motifs. It had stellar level design.

No game this year can touch that, besides maybe GOT which I did not play but have read about.

FF7R is great btu I think I can’t call it a game of hte year but it wasn’t a complete experience. I can’t judge FF7 until I get all of it.

That said *SPOILERS* I did fucking LOSE MY FUCKING MIND when Zack lived. So maybe FF7R is Second Place of the Year

[lunamanar]

Off-the-Cuff First-impressions Review: Trials of Mana

I got Seiken Densetsu 3/Trials of Mana in the mail today and am surprised by just how excited I am about it. After the admittedly predictable letdowns of the Secret of Mana “remake” and the FFVIII “remaster,” not to mention the iOS revision of the former, you’d think I’d be jaded at this point. 

But! FFVII remake is Actually Good, and so far it looks like Trials of Mana is, while certainly lower budget, also Actually Good. The voice acting is kinda meh, but not bad enough to detract from the game in my opinion, and considering they are working with SNES-era scripts (the dialogue is 99% word-for-word the same as the more recent translation of the original SD3 game, so it’s going to be a bit stilted anyway) it’s really not bad at all. 

Besides, the actual meat of the game--the world, character and monster design, and the gameplay--is extremely solid and I have had very little trouble acclimating to it. It’s fun to play, it feels good to run around and explore the world and the battles are both very simplistic in a way that is familiar to an old fart like me and very satisfying in the way they function. One of the biggest weaknesses the original game had was absolutely horrendous input lag in some areas due to 1. the sheer size of the loaded map section, such as Rolante/Laurant, 2. The number of on-screen instructions the SNES had to process during battles, particularly during fights where you had massive sprites taking up the entire screen (the awful awful wall-guardian “Genova” [harhar] is probably the single hardest boss in the game purely due to input lag/drops; when you attack an enemy, even assuming your weapon swings when you tell it to, and that’s a big ‘if,’ the monster you are attacking is actually in a state which is several frames ahead of whatever state it visually appears to be in on-screen, making it extremely difficult to time your attacks properly to both defend and do optimal damage to what should have been a relatively minor “miniboss” fight). Trials of Mana, on the other hand, has none of those problems, simply thanks to more modern technology. So far every fight I’ve engaged in has been smooth and responsive as well as very visually appealing.

And wow is this game pretty. It’s not the most amazing example of the best graphical advances in gaming history, to be sure, but I genuinely don’t think that matters, as it’s still beautifully detailed and really does look like they took the original graphics and magicked them into more modern models. The re-imaginings of each area and monster are very faithful to both the aesthetic and the layout of the original design while at the same creatively expanding on them; I've had no trouble finding my way around familiar maps or identifying the bestiary, but I have found a lot of added depth to them, such as the ability to jump down on rooftops and find hidden nooks that were just static backdrops or otherwise out of sight in the original. The areas are more layered and interactive, but very importantly, nothing is missing. Not even the dogs and cats, who still bark and meow at you if you talk to them. I feel like I’m being allowed to see and explore the original maps from angles I didn’t have access to in the past. It really makes the 16-year-old in me unbelievably happy, to be able to finally, actually see and do these things I could only wish for back then. For people who have never played it, it’s probably a very pretty, if otherwise unremarkable experience, but for me it’s the granting of a wish I’ve had for a long time, but never expected to happen. 

Similarly, I think a lot of people will look at the plot for this game and go, “...what?” Because it really doesn’t seem to have been changed at all from the SNES version, aside from a few little tweaks to the dialogue here and there to ease the transition between some sections or correct for differences in game mechanics (of which there are only a few; again, this is definitely a remake--it remains the same game with the same mechanics at its core). This can lead to some pretty awkward interactions between characters, and at times it seems pretty clear that the voice actors weren’t given a lot of direction about the context of their lines. It’s not a bad story, but it’s a very simply told one, and feels more like it’s targeting 12~16 year-olds (which it probably is, to be fair) who might not care so much about nitpicking the semantics of the plot and character motivations. Which is to say, most of the characters who are not main protagonists or villains are painfully cardboard-flat. They do what they do and say what they say because it advances the plot for them to do and say those things. Elliot falls for a “trick” that I’m pretty sure most 4-year-olds would see through. The Bad Guys are 1-dimensionally evil, wanting to either destroy or take over the world, with the possible exception of Lugar and Koren who have slightly more complicated “I’m your rival” reasons. That leaves the complexity up to the protagonists to shoulder, and while I haven’t played that far into the game yet, thus far is is beat-for-beat and shot-for-shot the same as the original, so I expect that character-building will be left largely up to the player to mentally write in, especially since the game features light/dark class-changes as a feature of its progression. (I do kiiiind of hope that your choice in class changes has a more material effect on the ending’s outcome, but I think that might be asking a bit too much from a remake of this sort.) But the somewhat archaic plot and character arcs are not surprising and for me don’t take away any of the game’s charm. Nikita is still the best, the shop owners still dance inexplicably, the fact you can play a werewolf is badass, rabites are still cute, Don Perignon is still kind of a jerk. I’m very nervous/excited to get Busukaboo and Flammie and hope they’ll be as much fun now as they were then. And the whole world is so damn pretty, I’m just glad to be there. 

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the music. I’m not sure how much of a hand Hiroki Kikuta actually had in this remake, but the synth-orchestral arrangements of his originals are excellent so far. They’re both accessible/adaptable to the game’s sudden scene transitions (”Nuclear Fusion” starts and ends just as cleanly) while being a richer version of the themes, keeping close to the original sound while making better use of all the instruments that the SNES just wasn’t capable of emulating well. It blends very well with the rest of the game and I hope that continues to be true. 

I do have nitpicks; while I know it’s a popular mechanic, I don’t like the “shift-lock” sort of dash using the left analog stick as both directional and a button. I think the camera controls are solid, but I do wish there wan a toggle-option to have the camera just follow over your shoulder wherever you run until you either run into a battle or turn it off. The character models don’t seem especially affected by anything except the most intense/pervasive lighting and sometimes feel oddly out of place, like I’m watching one of those old movies where an animated character comes into the Real World. Some of the monster designs seem cute-ified more than I’d like. And I can’t help but think that if the game can be this nice as a third-tier title for SE, what could it have been if they’d but the resources behind it that they obviously did with FF7? I understand why they didn’t, but it’s hard not to wonder what it could have been if they had.  Seiken Densetsu is one of the most fraught series in the history of home video games and the fact that it’s even still around is something of a miracle, in my opinion. After the last...four?...titles following Legend of Mana, and the disappointment that was SD2′s (second!) remake, I really didn’t go into Trials of Mana with high hopes. I have been really, honestly pleasantly surprised. Even if you’re a diehard old-schooler who really doesn’t like modern JRPGs, if you have any nostalgia left for this series, you should give this one a go. I think it translated really well to 3D models, and what little it loses in the switch, it makes up for in playability. It’s not hard to pick up, it’s easy on the eyes and ears, it’s less grind-y than the original, and it doesn’t try to be more than what it is. I’ll probably always prefer the original, of course; there are too many memories attached to it for me, too many things that were groundbreaking at the time that are now old news or completely obsolete nowadays, and the new game certainly doesn’t push any modern boundaries. But it’s worth checking out, and especially if you’ve spent 20 years feeling let down by the Mana series, this might actually be the game you were hoping for, albeit maybe a decade late. 

[arkus0]

Minor Spoilers!

Just finished the story of the FF7 Remake: Part 1. Yes I said part 1 since the developers plan to release this story in parts, either as DLC (which is unlikely) or as full on sequels much like X-2 or XIII-2. Part 1 covers the start of the game in Midgar just when you’re about to leave for the open world. To those who have played the original (I did play the port on the Switch last year) that doesn’t sound like a lot but trust me, this remake not only recreates the same events but greatly expands upon them with additional scenes, added quest lines and even whole chapter long stories that were not in the original.

I’ll try to keep spoilers to a minimum and keep this review brief; I rather enjoyed the new gameplay in combat as it mixes a hack n slash genre but keeps its RPG routes as the game freezes time whenever you want to choose from your commands list of Spells, Items and Abilities giving you time to think on your next move. However I was a bit dissapointed how Summons were handled as you can’t use them whenever you wished, you have to wait until the command appears which only has shown up during big boss fights and only once per.

I mentioned how the game greatly expands upon the original and for the most part I loved this aspect as you get to know more about the characters and even the side ones (which made the feels stronger when you know they’ll probably die soon due to the plot). Most of these new additions were very welcomed for providing great moments that shed new light on the story, but other did kinda feel like padding as they come out of no where and added very little to the plot and characters.

MAJOR SPOILERS!!

There are also some changes to the original plot, especially near the end. This game really lays it on thick with the foreshadowing to iconic scenes that would be lost with newbies and only long time fans would get which really kinda spoils the mystery of the journey somewhat. Not to mention the new element of “The Whispers”, these ghostly beings that show up frequently from the start and seem to be manipulating events to happen in certain ways. I don’t know why they were added or what the meaning behind them are, but it does make this game less a Remake and more of an Alternate Timeline deal, especially with that ending!

SPOILERS END

Nitpicks aside, this was an excellent Final Fantasy game, not just as a remake of 7 but as an FF game period. It might leave you wanting more but that was the idea of being Part 1 of a series. I wouldn’t say you should play this instead of the original due to the amount of references, I would reccomend playing the original first and than this one to truely appreciate it.

SIDE NOTE: I couldn’t resist quoting so many jokes from TFS FF7 Machinabridged while playing this XD

[eggoreviews]

My Top 25 Games Advent Day 2 - Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo Tales (#24)

“Now, excuse me while I help myself to your souls!”

I’m a complete and total Final Fantasy novice. Other than this 13 year old obscure DS title, I have played about 40 minutes of FF7 and that’s really it with my Final Fantasy experience. Somehow though, this game struck enough of a chord with me as a child that it ended up tailing this list.

Let’s get the slightly awkward stuff out of the way. I’ll be the first to admit this game is relatively junior. The entire game is populated with barely developed bird characters (which you yourself are also) and odd mini-games based on fairytales, the final boss fight is basically just a game of air hockey and the whole thing from start to finish is played with the DS stylus. Now, that’s probably a recipe for disaster. But despite the odds, and the fact that near enough everyone on the planet either hates this game or has completely forgotten it, I adored it.

Chocobo Tales sees you take control of a nameless chocobo who receives a name of your choosing and lives on the peaceful, slightly generic Chocobo Farm. And then just as you’re settling down for story time with the farm’s caretaker, a variant of Final Fantasy’s black mage shows up in the form of an edgy bookworm named Croma, and what do you know, he’s brought with him an evil soul-sucking book by accident. Now the whole farm is evil or whatever. I’ll be honest with you, the story isn’t particularly why this placed here; it’s kind of confusing, feels arbitrary and most of it centres around these crystals I’m supposed to care about. Aside from the stellar development of one of the game’s central villains Irma, it’s difficult to latch onto and remember clearly. No, what makes this game so excellent and memorable in my mind is the combat system. I absolutely loved it and I’ve never played anything like it since. You spend the entire game collecting cards depicting the various odd mythical creatures that populate the Final Fantasy universe and you use them to partake in fun, unique and oddly comicesque battles throughout the game. Each card has an element (fire etc.) and its own special ability to set it apart, and all the art of the monsters when they’re summoned is cool as heck! They’re like comic drawings!! And I’m still a child!!

Anyway, the way you fight in this game is via the four slots on the card that are at the top, left, right and bottom of the card. If you have a sword in one of these slots that coincides with your enemy’s card slots (e.g. your left slot has a sword and their left slot has nothing in), you land a hit. If there’s a shield in that enemy’s slot instead, no damage is taken and same goes for you. Add on top of that a sleugh of unique spells and abilities for each type of card and you’ve got yourself a genuinely fresh and interesting combat mechanic that makes it feel rewarding and even necessary to traverse the entire world picking every single card in the collection just so you can build the best deck possible. Admittedly, as I mentioned earlier, it all gets thrown away in the final encounter in favour of air hockey, but hey the music is cool and you can’t have everything.

Aside from combat, gameplay largely consists of those fairy tale minigames. You find cute little story books scattered across the world, most of which are mandatory to actually continue with the main story and honestly, they vary in quality. A few are so unabashedly fun I actually found myself coming back to them after it was necessary to do so, but equally, some suck so hard and make literally no sense from a mechanical standpoint that it briefly sucks the fun out of the game. Either way, the game’s commitment to focusing on fairytales as a central theme works brilliantly and really adds to this game’s unique feel. And then the rest of the time, you’re moving through the world via dragging a stylus across the screen and oh wow, they properly studied the Penguin Guide to Making an RPG World, didn’t they? They’ve got all the classics here; grassy starting area, fire bit, water bit, forest bit and (everyone’s favourite) threatening lightning bit. The graphics are absolutely amazing and hold up brilliantly for a 2006 DS game, but this world is so generic it almost hurts. However, of course, it wouldn’t have its signature Final Fantasy charm, nor would it likely have a place on my list if it wasn’t for the soundtrack. This game’s soundtrack is far better than it has any right to be. If you don’t believe me, have a listen to the game’s various overworld themes for each section of the map, or the battle theme that actually slaps or the mega sad song they use in emotional scenes that really does still bring tears (I really do be like that) or, best of all, this game’s version of Battle at the Big Bridge, which I maintain is one of the most awesome tracks to come out of a video game. I mean, it’s all just so GOOD.

Yes, I know I spent the majority of this review roasting the hell out of this game while simultaneously telling you it’s one of my favourites, but what are you gonna do, I think this is the relationship most people have with this game who don’t actively hate it. It’s fun, it’s wacky, collecting the cards and battling with them is downright addictive and it has just enough signature charm to call itself a Final Fantasy title (vaguely speaking), while also containing enough wonkiness to call itself a mid-2000s DS title. I adore it, in a way that I will never play it or talk about it with anyone ever again.

Standout Moment Award: Basically any part of the game that has combat in it qualifies for today’s standout moment award. I’d say the final encounter too for just the soundtrack alone (Battle at the Big Bridge babey), but also because, you know, I actually quite enjoy air hockey.

Standout Character Award: Irma. Sure, none of the characters in this game are exactly nuanced to hell, but something about Irma’s tragic backstory and her eventual redemption arc just did something for me as a kid. 

Tomorrow: No. 23; The birth of the most notable video game adaptation of Pinball.