#started playing ff9

[corcd]

Zidane & Vivi

[pokedopey]

vivi apprecation post

bonus me fusing into him while trying to talk to him

[mekatrio]

this is so funny to me cuz imo vesperia's UI was ASS

[maryse127]

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion of course but I just saw a character tier list and sometimes people are just wrong

[salmalin]

My sincerest apologies and warmest welcome to my rant about FF7: Crisis Core. Or, as I like to call it,

Propaganda: The Video Game

I say this with the utmost affection. Crisis Core ranks really high up there in my favorite Final Fantasy 7 installments. I played it when it first came out, borrowing it from a friend to play on a borrowed PSP. And, the more I learn about the game and the more I replay it, the more everything lines up.

This game is not about Zack Fair.

This game is about how Capitalistic Propaganda can sink into every aspect of life to the point where it is entirely indistinguishable from reality. And it’s very overt about it. So…

Here we go.

My treatise on Propaganda’s starring role in Crisis Core.

Part One: The Timeline

Something that a lot of people gloss over due to decades of Child Heroes in media—Japanese Shonen and Shoujo series in particular—is how young these protagonists are. We’ll hand-wave a lot of stuff in non-live-action series with just a little bit of suspension of disbelief. And that’s honestly just accepted these days. But here’s the thing about those hand-waves.

Final Fantasy 7 doesn’t do that.

Now, FF7 hand-waves a lot of stuff. For example, how far you can travel in a day by foot, the distance a man weighing approximately 165lbs can jump after being genetically fused with what might as well be a cocaine demon (Jenova), and how much hairspray one can reasonably carry on a cross-country journey while on the run from the feds.

Age is not one of them.

Exhibit A: Yuffie Kisaragi.

Do I really need to say more? She acts her age. So does Zack. And Aerith, even. Most of the characters in the original lineup were over twenty for a good reason. We see several kids in the series, and they all act their age, too—both the OG and the remake. Age is not a thing that FF7 really grapples with. It’s something they take relatively seriously.

Now, to the point.

Zack is 16 when Crisis Core starts…

… and he was 13 when he ran away from home without his parents’ knowledge to join the military.

Which accepted him.

At 13.

Without a parental permission slip.

Think about that for a second.

… Or for the next several parts of this breakdown.

Part Two: The Main Character

As I mentioned in the introduction, Zack is not the main character of the events of Crisis Core. Instead, he is the focal point of the second person POV. This is not the first time Square has done this. It was done most notably with FF9, FF10, and FF12. (I’m not going to go on an Akira Kurosawa rant right now, but please check out his film “The Hidden Fortress”. FF12 and Star Wars episodes 4-6 borrow heavily from this film.) The purpose and position of this character is such that they might best witness the effects the other characters make on the world as their stories unfold, usually in the role of a love interest. For Akira Kurosawa, it may have been told this way because these people are most effected by the decisions being made.

“Well, then, Sal,” you may be asking, “who would you say is the main character? Would that be Aerith, since she’s the love interest, like in the other games?”

No, actually.

It’s the antagonist.

And by that, I mean Genesis.

Hear me out. I used to hate Genesis, for I was once young, full of judgement for flamboyancy (thanks, internalized homophobia), and was led by the narrative to believe he was mean to his friends. Then I met my Lovely beta who loved him, so I wrote a fic for her as a gift. So for that I kinda just… read stuff. Because that’s the thing about Propaganda—you gotta read stuff to navigate it. I read the in-game emails. I re-watched all the scenes I could get my hands on with him. I read his wiki and tried to track down more information about him. Then I watched the scenes in Japanese and gained a better understanding of not just Genesis, but Sephiroth’s character. And I realized that Genesis was put on this road from the start. In fact, a big part of the fact that he’s seen the way he is in Canon—only at his most hostile and lowest points—is because the story is told through Zack’s point of view.

So before we get into the breakdown, here’s the hard facts about Genesis.

1. He was a test tube baby who may or may not technically be Angeal’s fraternal twin brother, which we are not going to unpack right now.

2. He was adopted by a relatively rich family.

3. He was a child genius (which requires not only resources, but drive to achieve), and at a tender young age of like… ten or something? He decided to mess around and literally invented pasteurization. Which is incredible, and really speaks to his knowledge of the world and ability to grasp complex concepts even at a young age. But, again, this is not the time or place to unpack that.

4. He was best friends with Angeal, who might as well have been the sweetest, kindest boy to ever walk the Planet. (I’m biased. I love him.)

5. As a teenager, he became fixated on Sephiroth, who had gained national acclaim as a SOLDIER despite them being the same age. (Please see part 1 and think about that for a second.) He then goes to join SOLDIER and brings Angeal with him. And Angeal brings his step-father’s puritanical “hard work is honorable” mindset with him. (On that note, Angeal and his father’s arc really are a wonderfully scathing letter to companies that overwork their employees and how toxic/unhealthy that line of thinking is. But. Again. We are not unpacking that right now.)

6. At one point he became consumed with LOVELESS, a series of poems with heavy prose and symbolism thicker than syrup. It got to the point where he was so well known for it that there was an entire fanclub dedicated to both him and analyzing the text.

7. While he was in SOLDIER, he repeatedly had his achievements publicly accredited… to Sephiroth.

Over and over and over again.

Everyone did, really. They mention it in the beginning of the game. Sephiroth even got public credit for Zack’s raid on the castle when he wasn’t even there. How much of his legacy is real? How much of it is made up? How much of it was faked? We don’t know. No one knows. But he keeps getting credit, anyways. And when Genesis confronts him about it, Sephiroth doesn’t care. In the Japanese version of their fight scene, you could even say he indirectly implies that he wants Genesis to take his place as the “hero”. In the English, Sephiroth’s line is, “Come and try.” But in the Japanese the line is closer to, “Wouldn’t that be nice?” Which, depending on how you take his tone, can mean wildly different things—from mocking, to earnest, or even admiration—which is especially to tell because he might be annoyed with Genesis at the moment.

Fun Fact: In Ever Crisis, Sephiroth explicitly says they are making up his achievements in the press to target boys his age for recruitment. (Thus why they accepted Zack at age 13.)

My theory on this line is that he is being cynical; that Genesis doesn't understand just how harrowing and even humiliating his experience has been. This only enforces my theory that the "come and try" translation in the English not only does a disservice to a line as wonderfully heavy as, "Wouldn't that be nice?", but fundamentally misunderstands Sephiroth as a character.

8. Genesis then took the fight to Shin-Ra. Inspiring a good chunk of their staff to leave the company, he then staged multiple attacks on facilities, staff, and the main building—which also spilled out into the city of Midgar. He murdered his parents, buried them, killed everyone in town, and… Yeah. It wasn’t pretty. A lot of innocent people died simply because they were vaguely associated with Shin-Ra. These are the actions of a villain. What’s more, this is clearly a sign that he has been acclimatized to death and violence by Shin-Ra to the point where he doesn’t even consider taking hostages.

Except.

Except the entire town was a Shin-Ra town.

Banora, canonically, was a Shin-Ra built town, which means everyone there was basically an employee of the company. No one was safe. Everyone was a threat. And that…

That was how he was raised. And he finally knew the truth—that every moment of his life was touched, controlled by Shin-Ra, all the way down to his very conception. He has never known freedom. He has never known his own identity. And now that very cage was killing him, slowly and painfully, and turning him into something that couldn’t even be recognized as human. He was watching himself rot in the mirror, and it was all because of Shin-Ra’s greed. And as he searched for salvation, he sunk into LOVELESS as he always had, hinging his entire life on Minerva’s Gift because he knew he was dying and that was all he had.

9. And then he died…

10. … but then it turned out LOVELESS was actually kind of a blueprint, and he did meet the Goddess, and he did get reborn without his degradation so he was rewarded for his journey in the end.

So why wasn’t Genesis the main character of the game?

Simple.

His actions challenge the status quo without being about the status quo. It’s a story about revenge. It’s a story about retribution. It’s a story about answering mass violence with mass violence and ultimately being rewarded by it. And while, yes, the series is an action-based violence simulator, the violence in the original FF7 was a guided, tactical effort. (For all that the characters aren’t the brightest bulbs in the sun lamps.) But the biggest, most obvious shift in the narrative happened when they realized their role as terrorists—bringing mass violence to the company via bombing and open aggression—was just resulting in increasing levels of retaliation against uninvolved people. They might as well have been a child beating the ankles of a giant. The goals and themes of the game fundamentally change when they realize that answering mass-scale societal violence with mass-scale physical violence was not only unsustainable, but also wasn’t going to solve their problem.

FF7 is about change and learning when violence—and what kind of violence—is appropriate in the face of different threats.

Genesis’ arc undermines all of that, and making him the main character would contradict the very heart of the OG game.

So, instead, we are positioned as Zack, connected to him through a mutual friend. From there we see all the damage and horror this vengeance brings to those living under the status quo.

But also, that plotline’s a major downer in a lot of ways, so they needed to lighten things up a bit to keep audience involved. And that’s why Zack is, well…

Part Three: Zack is a Himbo

Please, for the love of all that is holy, keep in mind that everything I say here is with the utmost affection.

Zack is dumb as a rock.

He is a charismatic, enthusiastic sixteen year old jock who ran away from home at thirteen years old to join the military. Which, please know, why I say “military” I mean “private security guard force with a standard-issue Death Baton and a license to kill”. The first scene in the game is him being excited that he gets to murder a bunch of people in a simulation, which he is immediately scolded for by his mentor. He is a glorified, souped up private security guard who is canonically only in it for the glory at first. He wants to be a “hero”, but doesn’t seem to fundamentally know what that means. And, over the course of the story, the definition of that clearly changes for him.

Which tracks, because the story takes place over a period of time with high stress.

Occasionally I see people saying they wish that Zack had more complexity to him, and honestly? The game. Would be. SO. BAD.

Full Disclosure: I am not the biggest fan of Zack specifically because he lacks a lot of nuance. I wish he was a bit more complex, too. But I also know that would break the game. What’s worse, if he was still on Shin-Ra’s side because he understood Shin-Ra’s mission… Well… That would make him a villain, or a cog at best. That’s not main character material. It would make the ending more messed up, though.

Anywho, Zack was thirteen when he left home. He had no formal education. He didn’t tell anyone what he was doing. He even joined without a permission slip from his parents. This means that Shin-Ra was accepting thirteen, possibly fourteen year olds into the military. (Some people will say this tracks because you can get a job at fourteen in many parts of Japan. But, and this is important, you aren’t allowed to be a security guard until you’re quite a bit older, and you need a specific license for it, much like in the US.) Clearly they didn’t teach this boy critical thinking skills. Not because he’s a himbo, but because having their Super-Powered Private Security Force With A License To Kill think independently would explicitly go against their interests. (EX: Genesis.)

Shin-Ra needs SOLDIERs to follow orders or the company would no longer be able to function. Seconds and Thirds aren’t even allowed to reject missions. (One could argue that sending certain someone on back-to-back missions would be a good way for them to eliminate undesirables within the ranks by sending them to their deaths, which… would make an incredible fic idea, actually.) We already know that First, Second, and Third Class rank assignments do not actually reflect the power of the SOLDIER. This is canon. I would instead argue that those who make the rank of First Class aren’t necessarily the most powerful, but are instead the most visible in the media, thus the easiest to market, and/or the easiest to manipulate and control. (For a great example of this, see The Umbrella Academy.)

The point is, Zack may have been elevated to his position as a first specifically because he is malleable and single-minded. Even after all he saw with Genesis, he stuck by the company to the very end, with the exception of the time Sephiroth was literally guiding him to fail a mission. Zack allowed himself to take Shin-Ra’s side every time, taking down their enemies and following their orders, preserving his “honor as SOLDIER” as he had been taught. The only thing that made him stop…

… was literally getting put in a jar.

It was when he was no longer a SOLDIER.

Part Four: Honor

There is no such thing as SOLDIER Honor.

I repeat: There is no such thing as SOLDIER Honor.

It is a fictional thing that is borne of an ideology based around hard work. It only has power because it is believed in. It is an intangible social construct similar to the law, mathematical order of operations, and gender roles. So why are Angeal and Zack obsessed with it?

Pretty simple.

Angeal’s step-father followed it.

Now, we know three things about Angeal’s step-father.

1. He was chill with the fact that Gillian was already pregnant when they started dating.

2. He was a very good father.

3. He worked himself to death trying to pay off the sword he bought Angeal.

This, of course, says a lot about Angeal considering he rarely uses the sword. He essentially sees that sword as the symbol of his step-father’s life. Everything he uses it for, he sees as more important than his step-father’s life. That thing is usually Zack.

Zack, who is the child who joined the military based on stories of heroes.

Zack, who rises against Angeal in the name of his own step-father’s ideology and tries to talk him down, even at the very end. But Zack fails because he fundamentally doesn’t understand what’s going on, partially because “Soldier Honor” is just one more aspect of this narrative he was given. It is a narrative that Angeal has had to step away from, even though he doesn’t want to leave the memory of his step-father behind. He was a good man. He was a good, hardworking man.

And that is why he died.

Corporations will use you up until there is nothing left, then honor your memory/sacrifice. Shin-Ra was doing the exact same thing the company his step-father worked for did; using up SOLDIERs until they outlived their usefulness. And Angeal was horrified to realize that his “SOLDIER Honor” wasn’t honor at all.

It was willingly submitting to control.

But, unlike Angeal, over time, this meaning changed for Zack. Partially because he didn't understand it fully in the first place. It became about acting with integrity. It became about helping people. It became about not lying down and watching the abuse Shin-Ra handed out in exchange for literal money; for maintaining the status quo.

At the very end, Zack understood what it meant to be a hero.

Part Five: The Conclusion

To sum up, Zack believed in and idolized the propaganda spread by Shin-Ra at such a young age, and was so convinced by it, that he ran away from home at thirteen to join the military.

He was their target demographic, so they happily took him into their ranks. What’s more, people think this is normal enough that we see no one opposing this, because the only people who oppose Shin-Ra are “extremists” or “violent terrorists”.

Zack then became their loyal puppy, groomed to fill his role as super-powered attack dog to sick on anyone they deemed appropriate, and he filled the role. He believed he was doing good. He didn’t think they were invading another country, because that’s not what he was told.

He went after Genesis, because that’s what he was told, and he wouldn’t let Genesis’ actions shake his faith in the company.

Then he went after Angeal, hoping to get answers, only to become more confused. Angeal taught him about SOLDIER honor. He taught him about a higher calling. He was the one who made Zack truly loyal to the company. This challenged everything Zack knew.

He went with Sephiroth, planning a small rebellion of their own (a white lie on paperwork) to get answers, only to find things he wasn’t ready for and couldn’t fully understand.

Zack is shaken by each of these events. Horribly. At times, we even watch him grieve. But time and time again, he doesn’t leave the company. He sees the damage they do first hand, and he doesn’t leave the company. The company isn’t the problem, to him. He reads their emails, does their dirty work, and “maintains his SOLDIER honor”.

Zack swallows what they give him right up until what they give him is torture.

Zack swallows what they give him until he becomes their victim.

Every step of the way, Zack is fed a story of how the world is. He was raised on it. He lived it. He became part of it. He was paid peanuts to enforce the status quo Shin-Ra installed in the world by force, and he was proud of it because it was, to him, something to be proud of.

Zack believes the propaganda whole-sale, and we get to watch, from the point of view of an outsider, as it slowly destroys his life before killing him.

Propaganda has the power to make suffering normal. Propaganda has the power to make murder righteous. Propaganda has the power to take a thirteen year old boy out of his home so they can give him a sword, and when they point him in the direction of their enemies he charges of his own volition, because they made him believe in their cause. And he believes in their cause because he believes that it makes life better for everyone.

But that’s not what’s actually happening.

That’s just what he was told.

Crisis Core is about propaganda, and the depths to which it can affect our lives. It changes our belief systems. It changes our perceptions of reality. And when it’s torn down around our eyes, it can make us go insane. It can make us violent and unreasonable as we realize just how much violence is being forced upon us—violence other people just plain do not see. It's just a a piece of paper. It's just a law. It's just a job.

It's just a war.

Final Fantasy 7 was about Fascism.

Crisis Core is about the propaganda that built it. It is told from the point of view of a boy, then a man, steeped in it. He watches until the people suffering around him—Sephiroth, Genesis, and Angeal—are twisted into villains by the truths and lies around them. Genesis and Angeal are tortured by truths, Sephiroth is transformed by lies, and Zack is subsequently hunted down to conceal them.

Crisis Core is Propaganda: The Video Game.

[paopuvanitas]

Started playing ff9 after the patch and had to make this real quick.... wuksphene fans we are winning

[auraboo]

I bought FF9 from a Steam sale and highly underestimated how addicted I would immediately get to it. I will play casually, she says, I will only play a little between chores, she says.

Anyway, I just started disc 2. Fuck.

[bluebudgie]

Final fantasy final fights ranked by difficulty (the ones I've played) (mainline only)

FF1 (PSP): 5/10 Kind of a difficulty spike if you've been going through the game normally without grinding. Not too bad though iirc.

FF2: 1/10 I genuinely don't know if it's possible to lose this battle. You get Leon and the bloodsword (?) right before the finale and he practically two-rounds Mateus. It's ridiculous but the entire game is stupidly easy so it's fitting

FF3 (DS): 10/10 Bro genuinely what were they smoking when they made this one. Feels impossible unless you grind your party up into the late 50s. And they put that piece of shit at the end of a literal 3 hours dungeon with no checkpoints. Love it.

FF4 (PSP) 9/10: Most ridiculous difficulty spike in the series. Whole game is easy (NOT the DS version) and then that shit slaps you in the face. I never beat it lol but I also only tried a single time. I know in my heart it's objectively easier than FF3. Not on DS, probably. But at least the dungeon is shorter. And probably has a checkpoint. Also banger song

FF5 (PS1).. bruh I never finished 5 IM SO SORRY ILU 😭 Gilgamesh out of 10 I couldn't get past the big bridge. Game was lowkey difficult the whole time.

FF6 (PS1): 4/10 Epic set up, epic music, but not particularly difficult. That's ok though. The dungeon before is the real pain in the ass.

FF7: 7/10 This is one of the "gotta be lucky" battles where you just have to pray your entire party isn't gonna get inflicted with every single status effect known to mankind. I remember redoing this one two or three times. And then making dinner during the supernova animation but what else is new

FF8: Got softlocked at Adel/10. Battle looks annoying as hell though.

FF9: 7.5/10 or also Luck/10. Technically the battle is easy enough once you get in the right rhythm. But there is that little thing that can randomly happen. You know. The party-wide insta death. Fucking bullshit. Wouldn't change it for anything in the world. Adds a whole different layer of stress to that battle. Ilu.

FF10: I never beat Jecht bro idk. It's been 100 years so I don't know what the issue was.

FF12 (PS2): 3/10 Not much happening in that battle but at least it looks cool. I don't mind that it's easy. The 99 floors of Pharos tower with Famfrit at the end are enough. Everything that happens afterwards is baby stuff.

FF13: Disc literally bricks during the final battle/10. I am unable to beat this due to technical difficulties. That said I do not trust in my hypothetical ability to defeat this boss considering it starts with Biblically Accurate Toaster Nr.3 and Toaster 1 and 2 have both been some of the worst pain in the ass I've ever encountered in video gaming. Rating this 10/10 without ever actually having fought it for more than a minute.

I don't know what ff15s final battle is and I only watched 16, but 16 looked like it was 90% cinematic with QTEs so I professionally evaluate it with 2/10 from a distance without ever having pressed a single button in this game

[doomsdaydicecascader]

wow you’re the first person i’ve seen actually support the retcon, that’s cool

i’ve always been neutral on it but would you be down with explaining your opinions on the retcon?

so my number one feeling is that the way homestuck is most like a game is not in its framing or its many subsystems within itself, but in that homestuck is a challenge to the reader first and foremost. it challenges a lot of existing preconceptions about what stories are, what stories can be.

sometimes this is in some stupid ways, but a lot of the time, it's in very palateable ways. hussie describes stuff like the juxtaposition of the earthbound walksprite panels and hussnasty mode as a "creative power move", something that keeps readers on their toes, something which kind of prods at your expectations and why you have those expectations.

and it helps to ask, what challenge is homestuck presenting to me, the reader, by doing this. this is the repeated motion of homestuck, like. "oh, what, it's insane that there's a whole playable game", "oh, what, it's insane that the fallout and consequences of an entire session of the game is being given in just three walkarounds". rose's arc is a challenge to the idea of a "coming of age" story, how do you come of age into a world where the metrics for growth and maturity and adulthood are denied to you? what if "adulthood" and "maturity" were fake ideas all along? well, if nothing matters, maybe you should have a drink to rest your mind about it.

one of the most direct challenges is the challenge of what death means in a story - there are a lot of stories where death is a bad end for a character. an impactful enough character death can change culture around itself for as long as it remains relevant. but that's not what death is in homestuck. death in homestuck is the freedom from being in homestuck. this is most prevalent with its deployment of gnostic ideas - yaldabaoth's treasure being homestuck itself expresses this most directly. the creator has made a flawed world and encourages the suffering of its inhabitants.

death is freedom from this flawed world, and this is expressed in terezi: remem8er. characters who did terrible things, horrible things, unforgiveable things, can find peace in death.

and i think the retcon is far and away the headiest challenge, the final boss of storytelling in homestuck's terms, because it directly challenges the idea of continuity, which is, by the way, TOTALLY FAKE.

continuity isnt actually real, its a thing youre actively constructing as you read. the drawings, the words, the music, the animation, the gameplay - all these things can help shape the idea of art, but the art itself, that's produced by you, the reader. and i think this is a good time to switch over to talking about the never-ending story for a moment.

the never-ending story is a story about atreyu. he goes on a fantasy quest, one which involves the death of his beloved steed artax, the plight of the world of fantasia, and confrontations with the nothing, this devouring force which threatens to end it. and ultimately, he loses. the forces of the nothing are just too overwhelming for a fictional character to overcome. the stakes are too high, no ending could be satisfactory and not contrived.

but then he doesn't lose.

because the never-ending story, the movie, is about bastian, and the relationship and empathy he builds with atreyu as he follows him on his adventure, and bastian, as the reader, is capable of caring about atreyu and fantasia even as it's been reduced to nothing. and its bastian caring about it, and bringing his own context, his own experiences - the name of his dead mother - to the story, that allows it to be reborn as something that can be completed.

and then he rides on the big luck dragon falkor and barfs on the bullies from the start of the movie.

homestuck is doing the same thing, but filtered through the language of video games. if youre playing ff9 and lose to black waltz #3 or whatever, it's a video game, that's to be expected. just do better next time. you wiped on the trial, it's normal, regroup and pull again. youve got 90 minutes. and in that time, in that regression, you become the kind of person who could overcome that challenge.

and it's a powerful challenge! it's one most readers don't overcome, because they are still stuck in the terms of thinking about things in what they expect out of it, instead of what it is. and this is kind of the core idea of homestuck.

hussie put it the best themself:

Homestuck, as an examination of all forms of creative practice, whether cosmic or artistic, isolates the tension between perfect, celebrated idealization and specific, flawed instantiation. The purity of the ideal is what's initially sought, but the imperfection of the specific is what has true value. Conflict and suffering arise from the guilt and stress associated with overvaluing the former. Deliverance and humanity come from recognizing and embracing the latter.

and honestly, i like what the retcon does for basically all the characters it changes dramatically. people take issue with rose's alcoholism plotline being resolved with vriska_slap.png but i don't really, because rose's alcoholism isn't like, of itself if that makes sense. it's alcoholism as an extension of nihilism, in a way that doesn't reflect real alcoholism, but it doesn't have to. s'a story. things can mean things nonliterally.

and vriska regresses as a character, but i think this specific regression is the core of homestuck. you get the platonic ideal of vriska-ness, one who didn't see and feel the trauma she inflicted on tavros, one who has completely supplanted gamzee's role as the plot-mover guide in the alpha session. and one who only makes token gestures at reparations and atonement for her misdeeds. one who is still obsessed with being at the center. and between 2016 and 2019, i was so certain that she had died a heroic death in act 7 that it is an immovable core plot point of my own comic.

(homework: why would homestuck call act 7 the rapture?)

and like, those pre-retcon characters literally do still exist, they show up in remem8er. remem8er goes unbelievably hard on giving every single dead character in the comic the best catharsis available to them: deliverance from having to be in homestuck. and i mean that entirely sincerely! the best ending for a homestuck character is not being in homestuck. and that's a tough thing for people to get their minds around.

but again, it kind of comes naturally with taking homestuck as it is, and thinking intently about what it's doing, what conventions it's challenging and how it's challenging them. because sometimes it's deeply stupid (decade-plus of thought on the matter has not made the incest any more palateable or understandable)

but sometimes it's the best shit in the whole world

[caityelizabethjoy]

This has really been a ‘treat yourself to FF9 merch’ kind of year!!

I didn’t own most of these things before this year. My collection began with the original PAL game and the strategy guide as a child. I even kept all the old ‘cheat’ sheets I’d written!

My first personal FFIX purchase was the Play Arts Garnet figure. I found it at my local Gametraders for $40, and I just couldn’t have her without Zidane, so I found him on eBay for a reasonable price in 2015. I also went to Japan in 2015, but the only FF9 merch I could find was my Zidane keyring from the Square Enix Artnia Cafe.

All the other purchases are from this year - I went a little crazy! I started with the Ultimania Archive which I’d had my eye on for a long time, as well as the music box - both purchased from Critical Hit. I absolutely love the music box!

My next purchase is unofficial merchandise - an art book from 'Debo' on Pixiv. I just adore their illustrations and I wish I had the whole set!

The hardest item to get was the Zidane and Garnet Bring Arts figures - I had to order it off the European Square Enix store and then use a third party shipping service to get it to me, but overall it was still a comparable price when looking at eBay prices. I love them! My inner child would have loved the whole set and played with them to death!

Next was perhaps the most special purchase - the Banpresto Diorama Zidane and Garnet figure! I got the last one from a seller who said it wouldn't come in the box, which was fine by me - imagine my surprise when it came in a brand new sealed box! I'm so lucky!

Finally, I pre-ordered my beloved Vivi doll from EB Games!

I absolutely adore my FF9 collection! I don't buy things for myself often, but I've been working hard in my career for many years and investing in important things in my life - so these treats are well deserved and will be treasured forever. I can't wait to perhaps add a Final Fantasy IX remake to this collection one day?

[itssovero]

I dreamt that some FFXIV fan had spent the last year making a speculative CGI intro to Dawntrail but they had started back when we knew next to nothing about it and then got discouraged when the actual expansion didn't go in the direction they'd wanted it to, so it was based entirely on now-debunked fan theories and the visual fidelity and animation quality gradually got worse as it went on.

It started with a wildly detailed, beautifully animated scene in a golden forest where a noticeably older Alphinaud fights enemies to some licensed song you would expect to hear in a car commercial (think "Boom" by X Ambassadors).

Then there was a less detailed but still decent-looking scene where the Prima Vista lands in Radz-at-Han while FF9 music plays as if to say look, it's FF9 stuff, wow! but then the cast of the Return to Ivalice raids come out and the scions are just like "Oh, right... it's just you guys".

By the final scene, the whole thing had devolved into a shitpost about how "we didn't go to Meracydia, this time" with unfinished Gmod-esque animation and googly-eyed rainbow sock puppet dragons.

[dennydraws]

I have Dawned the Trail!

It only took me... like 4 months :");;;; I only cried like ten times during the final area. More ramblings under the cut! (good ones, I had good time with maybe some minor gripes!) Obviously spoilers ahead if anyone plays as slow as I do xD;; (I haven't played the patch content yet)

Ahhh, what a cool expansion! With a slow start. I do understand why the start was the way it was though. For me it was slow, it was like going through ARR all over again while being bombarded with so many names I can't possibly pronounce let alone remember xD;; BUT!! This was Wuk Lamat's ARR arc. That was her journey's start. It made sense she goes through the "young adventurer" journey like we did so long ago. I wish some parts were shorter or hint/foreshadow of the "curious things ahead!" . Jungles aren't exactly an aesthetic I enjoy, everything started blending together after one point...safe for fantasy Texas. I think this largely contributed to me struggling to push through part 1 which is purely on me.

I heard some complains about Wuk being like Lyse on steroids before I started playing and I could see that at first but ...weren't we too? Excited new Warriors of Light, once upon a time? I enjoyed her pep and energy :D;;; Yes, in the first part I can see it can be a little annoying - like how can you be this naive!? But then a friend pointed she is like 19 and suddenly my brain clicked - oh.............. ok that makes a lot of sense. So idk, cut her some slack, she is new to adventuring and energetic bean.

Furthermore, Wuk was needed in part 2 because she had to put to test all she learned in arc 1 and I enjoyed that a lot. She felt a lot more grounded and I'm glad we got attention on Erenville and Krile too. I'm glad the Scions were there but not very active - I feel like they got their share of development so it's ok to step back a bit.

Ok, I can't possibly remember all the Ja Jas names but Taco Stomper's development surprised me in a very good way. I though there is like a parallel between him and Brother Ja - both gifted/miracle children with huge expectations and pressure of delivering results...except that Taco Stomper spoke up and got help instead of bottle things up like Brother Ja. Admittedly I feel like they should've added more scenes where Wuk and Koana try to reason/reach out to him or papa Ja Ja shows concern but they did mention they have tried in the past I just wish I saw that in the expac rather than be a random line.

Well with that said, the 2nd part carried the expac hard for me... like so very hard xD I took month break trying to push part 1 but part 2 I devoured in like 2 days or something.

Sphene was such an excellent "villain". I loved her so much. I consider her like the primal Alexander - primary task before all, even if it means destroying yourself. It's so very tragic when you think of it - she is just a pile of memories, likely selected ones that present her as the benevolent queen they all knew. Would the real Sphene had gone to such extremes as to keep the Endless, or even created them in the first place? They created her and put her to the task without any way to even have an option to say no... ;n; Needless to say as FF9 lover the whole part 2 fed me well and I devoured everything with great appetite. Ok, these rambles went long xD

I enjoyed the expac, I wish part 1 was a bit better paced/shorter.

Some scenes felt like they needed VA but didn't have for some reason.

Vanguard had the best music!

Taco Stomper owes me tacos

I'm yet to poke the patch... '-';;;;;;

[terraxcloud]

A Few Many Things...

There are 5 or more timelines, and it's not worth counting them anymore.

Biggs dies in one (the middle) but Zack at the church immediately talks about him being alive (this is the Zack that meets Cloud in the final battle I believe). The first image is the last Aerith date and the Stamp bag is to the left. Johnny appears with a plushie of a dog to show it's a different timeline instead of using a bag.

The reason it's not worth counting them is due to what Sephiroth says:

In this scene the FF9 Terra/Gaia "two planets becoming one" thing is shown again.

They represent the timelines as worlds, but what they're showing is an FF9 thing involving actual planets. I'll look at DFFOO Act 4 Chapters 4 & 8 again to see what's up there. Of course, they wouldn't say it's planets because of the implications, but that's not to say these timelines aren't coming together...they just need a reason since most people just think the devs are changing things just to change them. Gilgamesh has already appeared in this game from his own rift anyway.

After the Temple of the Ancients, Aerith and Tifa aren't able to stop Cloud from giving the Black Materia to Sephiroth. The date scenes between Aerith and Cloud are more than likely for Yuffie than Terra, especially since we have no idea of Terra other than the main theme lyrics.

The descriptions Cloud gives about what he prefers and how he acts matches what they show of Yuffie's interests (chocobos, getting paid for jobs or acting like a merc, smiling, seeing Red XIII as a dog, staring at Cloud, the poses for the photo with Aerith, being pissed off, etc.

This isn't saying that Terra is supposed to be like this. Yuffie was always a reflection of "real Cloud", however, both Terra and Yuffie are similar to him (the whole "siblings" dynamic). It could be that the Terra we got in other games isn't the same as the one when FF6 was being developed before the main character vanished (Kefka may have sucked her personality away).

The thing that makes Cloud "regain himself" is remembering the flower Aerith gave him in the beginning of Remake.

I don't know if Aerith will find the "real Cloud" herself. Tifa represents that part, but it's clear they're changing things with her. Obviously, they're going to use the "dream" this time around, which is what Aerith represents (she already has a shared dream with Zack), not Tifa. They also put a small shooting star bit with Aerith instead of Tifa, but if Aerith's technically dead the only character that can do these things is Yuffie.

The dialog Yuffie gives immediately gives after Cloud wakes up before the Lost Capital is the hint. It couldn't be encapsulated in a small scene, so they just left Yuffie out of it. If she's not going to do anything, why would she say it immediately?

Another hint was after the Demon Gate boss when Cloud starts banging his sword on the wall to break through. The two characters they show reacting to him are Barret and Yuffie, but the camera goes towards Yuffie in particular. Before this Yuffie was shadow boxing with Barret, which is what she does with Cloud at the end of her date scene (it also happens with Barret after leaving the Mansion at Nibelheim before the final Roche boss fight).

I believe Red XIII represents the change Cloud has personality-wise ("you don't always have to play the badass") while Barret represents the anger he feels at Sephiroth. Having Yuffie shadow box Barret for fun while Cloud is going crazy for the Black Materia shows that Yuffie will have a big role in preventing Cloud from doing this in the 3rd game.

The Corel sidequest with Cloud Jr. shows Barret's change to being "softer" as he explains that he was always hard on others and going after everything that ticked him off, making others suffer in the process. It makes sense why they show him and Yuffie reacting.

The other sidequests that show this "anger" issue are the Chocobo Billy ones with Yuffie in Nibelheim and the last one at the Gold Saucer with Tifa. The Yuffie one is more about the anger issue while the Tifa one is more about learning what happened in the past.

If you think about it, the only thing Cloud doesn't "remember" is being a normal Shinra foot-soldier, the one with motion-sickness (maybe the memory of him defeating Sephiroth from Remake is gone due to the whispers? He does react to the tubes in the Shina Mansion a bit).

The dialog Yuffie has about Chocobos are also noteworthy (since if we go by the symbols, Yuffie is the Moogle and Cloud is the Chocobo).

Btw, these two scenes are kinda similar:

Another "Yuffie represents the Moogle" hint is made at the Gold Saucer intro. Cait Sith summons a Cactuar, a Tonberry, and a Chocobo, but what about the Moogle? It's Yuffie since the moogle is on her pop star outfit. These four on the orphanage chalkboard in Remake. With the characters we've seen so far it may be like this:

Cactuar - Zack Tonberry - Sephiroth Chocobo - Cloud Moogle - Yuffie

The Tonberry King boss battle has MAI dialog that sounds similar to Sephiroth's dialog when he goes insane in the mansion basement. It's kinda fitting that this is a Yuffie sidequest and you need to steal his crown.

The Cactuar thing is Zack due to the "pose" which Cloud, Yuffie, and Red XIII also do in the last proto-relic quest. People know that's something Zack has done.

Every sidequest has it's own meaning. The one similar to Cloud's Dissidia story is the Barret one in Gongaga with the weaponsmith.

[emlan]

Finished expansion!

Final Fantasy XIV Dawntrail done, here's some MSQ spoiler thoughts:

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I've had XIV on ice for a while so I was going into it as a casual and not a diehard fangirl but still I am shocked and disappointed by how bored I was during the whole thing… And annoyed, which is a bigger crime. Constantly wondering why characters act like they do or why they aren't asking about X.

Alphinaud and Alisae did nothing and they were both an eyesore with their old outfits, dressing them in local threads would've been so easy and a cute way to buff the immersion of visiting a new continent. (To be fair I guess they HAVE to tag along even if the writer doesn't want them there due to Trusts? I'd argue Krile and Erenville were just pieces of furniture until the very last stretch too but they were at least interested in the same goal as Wuk Lamat so they didn't feel out of place.)

My fav stuff is interacting and bonding with characters new and old but it doesn't feel like we got much of that? Trying to picture what people will even draw fanart of for DT of and all my mind's eye can see is Wuk Lamat lovers drawing WoLship art or just her looking cute and/or hot. (Also Erenville looking cute and/or hot.)

Doing a "sweet girl turns into massive threat" right after a "sweet girl turns into massive threat" expansion is rather brazen but it is a Classic so whatever. Would've been neat if she was an adult woman instead.

I could probably rant about several particular moments but I can feel myself slowly starting to morph into a WORST expansion EVER red-arrow-and-circle YouTube thumbnail which would be rather unsexy of me so I'll go ahead and choose happiness by listing the things I enjoyed instead;

Starting with the incredible lvl 93 weapons!!!! They all look like bland NPC pieces which is something super rare in this game, such a breath of fresh air. The NIN daggers especially is pure 10/10 and I was even considering changing my never-glamming-it-away ARR longbow into the new BRD one. The new sets are good too, I'm not much for scifi-y gear but the ones you get before Solution 9 are very nice and the aiming top gave my lizard a very lovely waist. I was really lucky to get the golden bangle hand drop that all Tuliyollal NPCs wear so I could fit in proper :3 Tweaking my main glam slightly to blend into each new areas better was a big source of fun.

Zoraal Ja bringing back an SSR Alpaca made me chuckle.

The moblin pot contract stuff is very endearing, basically they are keeping a crafter as a personal pet to love and pamper so they can do their best work? Such a cute Human Cattle aligned setup even though it's a mutual agreement and not actual ownership.

I liked the little merchant/seller skit we do with Koana even if my main glee was just seeing him wear something that didn't clash with his teal hair.

I perked up during the cooking contest introduction since it seemed like the chance for shenanigans was high, but they didn't really play around with it. At least we got Alisae musing to herself about Zuraal Ja and Baka Ja Ja in matching aprons 👌 Is the Fu awakening in you, my girl…?

Bakool Ja Ja doing his best to help out and getting a little flustered when receiving thanks after having been a stupid miserable bully that pretty much set off a nuke willy-nilly was nice, but only bcs I tend to clap like a seal no matter what when this trope appears. Since I am choosing happiness I'm not gonna comment more on his character.

The play was delightful as was the FF9 town wink in general (I also laughed for the wrong reasons at poor Otis doing a voice gag in an unvoiced cutscene, at least it still got the gist across well.)

lvl 100 dungeon nice presentation.

And…

Of course…….

Koana turning out to be an all-in siscon 🙏

Blessed be. It was rather predictable him and Wuk Lamat would end up as a duo ruler pair to cover each other's weaknesses, but her energetic public marriage proposal and stone carving to truly show off their union ran with the premise more than what I had braced for!

Love him feeling super jealous and obviously having been crying in the shower over WoL getting asked about a place in his sister's court [before he knew he had a place too] and then later him also clearly feeling threatened when she states that she views the WoL as one of her beloved siblings too. So pathetic clearly wanting to be the only Brother™ in her life ❤

I was kinda eyes emoji at Zoraal Ja too when he was staring at his sister with icy contempt, emboldened by my incest win when it came to the catboy I dared to dream that the oldest brother also harbored some obsessive feelings towards her that he didn't know how to handle, but that's not quite what happened… It's a shame we didn't get flashbacks of all those siblings together in various stages of life, I kept forgetting they were actually family so Wuk Lamat angsting over her evil brother made me go Oh Right every time I got reminded.

Lastly it wasn't quite part of the MSQ but the chuuni villain roundtable intro for the Role Quests was very silly (positive) and probably the most entertained I was during these past 4 days. Well, besides the actual trial fights being fun but I don't count those for story.

Ignoring the "human" faces and only going by the world the graphics/lighting update is very nice! My guy made it out OK but it stings a bit every time I see his mouth having had its charm nerfed. Very impressed by the not-Vanu Vanu, Horthgals and Mamool Jas facial expressions. However, hairstyles all look worse than before, so soft and "washed out"? I'm exaggerating for effect rn but Koana looks like he has a soft teal cloud as hair basically? And the twins' white hair is now too uniformly white without the darker hair strand lines…

The inn room is probably the nicest looking one we've gotten so far, both luxurious and cozy vibes. Always crack up seeing my Au Ra in bed nothing says relaxation like a super stiff coffin pose.

Quite bummed I couldn't find as much excitement as in previous expacks and I probably won't bother renewing sub for a while, but at least I already have other fandoms to keep me occupied.

[jessjustplay]

I started playing Final Fantasy XVI! 7 hours update

May 25, 2025

Clive, a council meeting, and a long flashback. I don't know what the game devs were thinking, but the intro to this game could have been so much better with a shorter flashback or with those events broken down and sprinkled throughout the game.

But other than that, I love the game so far! The battles are beautiful and a lot of fun. The summons look amazing and it's cool seeing so many of them.

I normally play Story Mode but for some reason I decided to play Action Mode this time! I think choosing Standard/Normal mode in Star Ocean: The Last Hope gave me a boost of confidence lol

Shiva looking extraordinarily beautiful.

The game utilizes the strategy mentioned above by showing us scenes of Benedikta's past and it works perfectly. By bringing up the past when it's relevant to a current event, you're able to see exactly how the past affected the present. It feels important, which makes me care and pay attention.

Are we going to see her again???

Once you get back to the current timeline, the pace of the game picks up thanks to exploration and really cool battles. There are still a lot of cutscenes but I don't mind them. My complaint is only with the beginning flashback scene.

The summons in the game look amazing.

They're really cute together.

A beautiful crescent moon.

I'm having a really fun time playing this game. So far I've spent the most time getting to know Clive, Cid, and Benedikta. Jill was there for a moment, but I know she'll join later. I'm really curious what happens next!

Benedikta is an interesting character and definitely belongs on my Angry Women in JRPGs list. I am curious if her story is wrapped up or if something will happen later on with her.

I wasn't sure if I liked Cid or not. He gives off this "I think I'm so cool" vibe that doesn't always work for me. But sometimes it does. For example, it was hilarious what he yells "CLIVE!" at Lostwing and I admire his desire to help other Bearers and Dominants.

As for Clive, well he sure is mopey but with reason. He seems kind, loyal, duty-driven. He would definitely go fetch you some water if you asked. His mood feels sullen but I mean, understandably so. I want to see how (or if) his character develops.

She's so scary lol

There was something about seeing Hellfire in such HD glory that made me emotional lol

Ramuh! It's cool to see him again. (I feel like I only connect him with FF9 since we have to do his little scavenger hunt inside Pinnacle Rocks.)

I'm super bummed about this. I have to finish the game before I can talk about a possible pattern I've noticed.

Odin looking badass.

And Bahamut, who is a blondie dragoon named Dion. Which is interesting since Kaine from FF4 is also a blondie dragoon lol

Anyway, that's where I left off. After this scene, Clive is having a meltdown and needs clothes.

[thebeauregardbros]

[BLANK TEMPLATE HERE] further explanation (rambling) below;

Other characters I didn't include:

Erminia (The Sword of Paros)

Laguna Loire (Final Fantasy VIII)

Snow Villiers (Final Fantasy XIII)

Firion (Dissidia 012: Duodecim)

Initial inspirations for Alus were primarily Firion, Erminia, and Harry. I never properly played FFII but Firion's fan wiki describes his personality as "weak to women, pacifistic in nature, and dreams of 'a world covered in wild roses'." I love this character and his voice actor, Johnny Yong Bosch, who also voice acts Vash from Trigun. Ever since falling in love with Dissidia's version of Firion, I started imagining Alus' voice claim as Johnny even though I could not for the life of me find any instance of Johnny voice acting with a British accent let alone in the same flowery speech style of Alus' shakespearian dialect lmfao. Regardless, and furthermore, Johnny's voicelines as Zero in Marvel VS Capcom sparked an inspiration for a soldier-like character which made Alus into a Paladin. Alus later turned into a character that incidentally related to Steiner's storyline in FF9 really well about a man who's conflict with loyalty to his job and his personal ethics and logic causes him turmoil. I was always a fan of Steiner, but never finished FF9 until years after Alus was already created. The Sword of Paros is one of many shoujo 1970s/1980s fantasy romance comics that inspired Alus' aesthetics. This comic in particular is important to me as its' main message is about fighting against hard rules to achieve what society deems the impossible. This is a common theme with Alus' character inspirations; Snow, Piros, Vash, Harry, and Ruka all have this as common character trait. Snow, Piros, and Ruka want to be storybook heroes (a major trait for Alus!) and Vash and Harry both strive for making a dark, chaotic world more kind and sympathetic.

Vash and Firion both share pacifistic values.

It's also just important to me that Alus is a goof. Harry, Vash, Piros, and Laguna are all very chaotically comedic characters. Characters who are goofy despite tragic backstories are Vash and Ruka. That shit is catnip to me.