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silver-wield · 5 years ago

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FF7R: The Cloud Narrative

While in the middle of one of my replays that involved making different choices for Cloud to get other stuff, I started thinking, “What would Cloud choose?”

And that got me thinking some more about the fact we say it's all what Cloud would choose, but really, it's what we pick to get the best story that suits our preferences.

And since I'm that kind of dork, I decided to replay and let Cloud's personality and development lead me to make the choices so I could try and see what Cloud would've chosen if he had autonomy. It makes for a slightly different game than the one I usually play, but it was fun really thinking over the options and deciding how Cloud would react to every situation and whether he'd choose to engage with it or not.

I didn't actually remember to grab every screenshot of my playthrough, so some of these are from Youtube, but the decisions I say I made are the ones I made because why would I lie?

Ok, let's mosey...

Spoiler warning for ppl who haven’t played – do I still need to do this? Eh ok, (I tag FF7R spoilers as final fantasy 7 remake spoilers) and it’s gonna be long.

The opening decision is in Chapter 2 when we first meet Aerith. None of these decisions affect anything within the game to do with the resolution, it just makes either girl react differently to Cloud.

I'm sure some people would argue he'd buy it because Aerith, but he doesn't know her, has no obligation to be nice to her – especially compared to the Avalanche crew who he needed to rely on back in the reactor and he was a dick to them – he's in a rush and has no reason to buy flowers unless people want to assume he already had Tifa in mind the moment Aerith mentioned it. If we do choose the option to buy it right away, Aerith flirts a little and slots the flower into Cloud's shoulder strap over his heart. We get none of the extended dialogue if we choose this option. For those people who say the more someone talks is a sign of canon, this would make the “how much” option the non-canon choice because it contains the least amount of dialogue and time they spend together.

If we choose “I'm good,” then we hear Aerith insisting he takes it by saying, “When was the last time you saw a real one,” and adding that “it'll make your girlfriend's day.”

Then we get the automatic line from Cloud that happened when we originally chose “how much.”

After some more dialogue from Aerith another choice occurs, one which can make Cloud sound like a royal shitbag or not.

I think everyone would agree that Cloud purposely pissing off a total stranger is out of character, and if you choose the second option he doesn't actually speak and Aerith goes straight into her line about how “lovers used to give these when they were reunited.”

For my choices as Cloud I said, “I'm good,” and then when she insisted, I agreed to take it because to me – and this is how I always answer – it feels the most Cloud kind of answer.

Chapter 3

The next choice Cloud's presented with is during chapter 3 when Tifa offers him a drink. No matter which choice you make he calls Tifa beautiful as the outcome.

By answering “something hard” Tifa goes into her cocktail making routine before pouring Cloud a drink that looks suspiciously like piss, but is actually meant to represent the colour of his hair. Hard and bitter. Like him. He doesn't like it. Colour me shocked. She then goes on to make the red drink that's a representation of her eye colour. This is when Cloud raises the glass and makes the “beautiful” comment.

If you choose the refuse option, Tifa replies that “if you were in the mood” and then goes into the same drinks making routine as the first option, with the exact same dialogue and outcome between them. (And now I know it's almost identical I wonder why the devs did it? It seems like a straw man option tbf. There's no real choice or changes to the dialogue and it's like it's been put there to give the illusion of it being optional).

Since Cloud is secretly into Tifa I figured he'd choose “something hard and bitter” as a way to try and show off how tough he is. However, it’s worth noting that Cloud isn’t a big drinker and only drinks when he’s in a low mood. He’s pretty happy here, so I’d say in general he wouldn’t drink, but because he’s only recently reunited with Tifa he still wants to impress her. So yeah, to drink.

The next chance for Cloud to have a choice concerns the chapter 3 side quests that open up the alone at last which goes towards choosing a dress for Tifa later in chapter 9. If you don't finish the quests or miss alone at last you always get Tifa's blue dress and moon charm earring. That is her canon outfit.

The quests for chapter 3 are all monster related apart from one – which I'll get to in a minute.

Chadley's report involves scanning monsters for data and killing them. Rat problem comes from the item vendor and involves killing doomrats.

Nuisance in the factory involves killing drakes.

On the prowl involves going after a shinra dog thing

Just flew in from the graveyard involves a larger drake.

These are all the type of job that Cloud would accept without thinking about it too much. He's a merc, he's getting paid to kill monsters. It'll show off his skills and build his rep and as Tifa says, the better his rep the more he gets paid. These five quests are ones Cloud would take because that's the type of person he thinks he should be. The monster slayer.

As for quest 4, lost friends, I initially said that Cloud would avoid this because it involves two things he isn't good with: kids and animals. Now, I've heard from people that by AC Cloud is actually pretty good around kids, and I agree, he's got a lot of love from them by this point. But that's at least two years away from now and he's not even slightly good around kids and actively avoids them. Cats seem to have a grudge against him, too, at this point in the game – though Wedge's cat mellows towards him after he helps out. These were my reasons for deciding to avoid this quest because Cloud just wouldn't do it. Then, once I got to it, I realised the reason why Cloud would do it.

Tifa.

Tifa likes kids and animals. Now, as a respectful type of girl, she doesn't usually push Cloud to do things he doesn't want to. She's always considerate to his feelings and to others too. In this case, though, she's not focused on Cloud and if he'd want to do this job, but on helping out a little girl. Cloud's been running around doing jobs all morning, so Tifa's related him to the task of finding the cats.

Usually Cloud would refuse to something that's so obviously beneath his skills, but because it's Tifa who's asking, he agrees.

Alone at last triggers and we get to view a moment between Cloud and Tifa that ends in him choosing a dress for her. Alone as last is narrative canon whether we choose to see it or not because of other hints in the game that refer back to the conversation they had. While they talk about the past we get an above view of the rug that has a reunion flower pattern on it. Tifa and Cloud both take steps towards each other during this scene, which symbolises their closing the emotional distance that's between them.

This choice changes nothing about the game and only matters if you want to go for the dressed to the nines achievement.

If you choose the top option – for her canon outfit, Tifa replies “Yeah, I guess we aren't kids anymore.” If you choose the second option she says, “That's not much different to my regular style.”

If you choose the exotic outfit she says, “really?” and acts a little awkward about it.

She then asks Cloud to dress to match her. The dresses he wears during wall market all have a similar style to Tifa's options, showing he did dress to match her. The narrative canon choice for which dress Cloud eventually went with is something I'll be bringing up later.

By choosing the canon outfit option and getting Tifa's canon dialogue we get a reference to the fact they've known each other for a long time. This ties into the conversation they had which also touched on their shared history. This is a background development scene between them, but isn't necessary to know because we get other info about them over the rest of the game. This extra bit of dialogue is to increase our knowledge of Cloud and Tifa, both separately and together.

Chapter Four

Jessie’s bike ride, which isn’t optional in the sense you can choose how it goes. The result depends on how good you are at the minigame. However, since there’s three endings, this is a choice based result.

Are you, Cloud? Really? When did you get that SOLDIER mandatory training? Of the three optional endings, the narrative canon that makes the most sense is Cloud being really bad at it. This is his first time doing any of that, but it gives him the crash course he needs for later in the Shinra building when he does all those fancy moves. Cloud owes Roche some props for observational bike stunting.

Chapter Five

And our next canon narrative choice is between making Cloud look incompetent at his job or choosing to have an intimate moment with his one true love. Well, seeing how the cloti roll is in the ultimania we know this is the correct narrative choice.

Chapter 8

There's a long gap between chapter 5 and the next option we get for Cloud. Once we meet Aerith again and get her back to Sector 5, we go into her side quests and optional discovery. Aerith's side quests are tied to what dress she later wears during chapter 9.

The side quests for Aerith's chapter are split into groups of 3. This means that by unlocking one, you get the further quests on that branch. One branch is more of a Cloud oriented style set of quests, while the other involves the thing he doesn't do well around: kids.

Kids on patrol → A verified hero + Angel of the slums

Weapons on a rampage → Paying respects + moogle merchant.

If you don't complete kids on patrol first then the other two don't unlock. One of these further quests involves more kids and playing with them. Not really Cloud type activities and unlike with chapter 3 where he'd do something because Tifa asked, he's not got that type of relationship with Aerith that he'd be willing to do stuff that he doesn't want to just to impress her.

Breakdown of sidequests in sector 5 and NPC background dialogues.

Weapons on a rampage is more his style of quest, which leads to the NPC who set it to ask a further favour. This links to the next quest where you have to pay respects for the old man. The thing is, he doesn't have the graveyard key, which leads to the next quest where we have to go buy it off Moggie. This is the only kid related quest on this branch and it's over in moments. Cloud has the minimum amount of contact with Moggie and doesn't show any kind of tolerance towards her while he's talking. There's also no apology for his behaviour – unlike when he said to Tifa he was doing his best when she scolded him for being rude.

The way these quests are set out in blocks of three and the fact one half is heavily reliant on child interaction – which Cloud wouldn't do at this point in his development or association with Aerith – leads me to believe he wouldn't agree to these quests. This means the language of flowers discovery doesn't trigger and Aerith ends up in her second option dress – which I've theorised is her canon outfit because of its design similarity to the OG version, her reaction to the dress, the fact that in OG, Aerith chose her own dress, the hairstyle and accessory match the OG style and Cloud's reaction is a very Cloud reaction to have, compared to the other two outfits – the bad dress has dogs and rats following her and the red dress is so ott she's swarmed by fans, a red carpet and so on, but also her accessories don't fit her symbolism theme of flowers because she's wearing stars.

With all of the above in mind, I surmised Cloud would do the monster hunt branch of quests and quit while he was ahead.

Chapter 9

Where before we had a few choices happening, once we hit Wall Market we're inundated with options that affect Cloud's outfit later on. They also showcase what kind of morals Cloud has. Either way, it's canonically easier to get Chocobo Sam's pts higher than Madam M's, leading me to believe he is the canon narrative choice for this section and that Cloud's black and blue corset dress is the one he ends up wearing.

This contradicts my previous theory about the ultimania in which Cloud is shown very uncomfortable in the loli outfit, which led me to believe that was the one he ended up in if he made the choices in Wall Market. I now believe it's because if you pick this outfit it's his “bad ending”, worse than if you don't make any effort and get the plain black and grey dress.

The maximum amount of pts you can get from Chocobo Sam's options is 6.5, compared to Madam M's 5.

There are several people who offer you options during Wall Market.

The love hotel owner (not a Nojima self-insert lol).

Johnny (discovery) + before the first coloseum match – there's a bottle on the table and the choice is to drink or not.

Madam M x2

Sam x2

The first option you get in Wall Market happens before you've even entered the place. Sam asks you what the girl you're searching for looks like. No matter which option you choose, Sam says that Cloud has a crush on Tifa – which he doesn't deny.

If you choose the first option you get 1pt with Sam.

If you choose the second option you get 0pts

If you choose the 3rd option you get 1pt with Madam M.

I chose the first option because Cloud's a guy, with eyes, and the other two choices don't offer anything in the way of a physical description and if he's describing her to someone then he needs to actually describe what she looks like in some way. This is the only option that does that. It's also the only option that gets a different reaction out of Aerith, whereas the other two options have the same reaction from her.

This is the second option we can choose from and it's the love hotel guy (still not a Nojima self-insert). If you choose “no thanks,” this gets you 1pt with Sam and Aerith flirts with Cloud.

If you choose “how much?” you get a surprised “Cloud!” from Aerith and 1pt with Madam M.

If you choose “back off” you get 0pts and Aerith apologises on his behalf.

Of the 3 choices, I picked “back off” because it's the most Cloud appropriate choice.

Next, we have the Johnny discovery when he literally runs past you as you try to go to Don Corneo's for the first time. By following him to the Honey Bee, we get a lecherous dialogue from him and then a question about Cloud's own preferences. Would he go into the Honey Bee? If he agrees with Johnny, we get a slightly self-loathing assumption of a reply, whereas if we disagree, Johnny says that Cloud hasn't experienced anything yet. Either way, he runs off once he's finished.

By agreeing with Johnny you get 1pt for Sam.

If you don't agree you get 0pts.

I chose to disagree because Cloud isn't a lecherous pig and is actually pure af with no experience.

We learn from Leslie that the only way to get into an audition with Corneo is through the trio. Andrea Rhodea has a 3 year waiting list, so we don't even see him. So, we go back to Sam.

This is a hint that the following event with Sam is a load of bull. Johnny telling Cloud – if you interact with him – that he should've followed his gut is a hint that Cloud should trust his instincts. It’s also confirming that while Cloud is a total cheapskate who doesn’t do anything for free, he’s also a betting man who’ll think little of dropping 1000g on a sure thing (why 1000g? because that’s the amount he says to Barret in chapter 6, showing that while Cloud appreciates having money, he’ll also spend it.) Then it's around the corner to where Sam waits. Who, despite having already endorsed Tifa, says he's willing to help Aerith if she can guess the result of a coin toss.

Ofc it's rigged. But if you choose to gamble, it impresses Sam. You get 1.5 pts for choosing heads or tails. If you refuse to gamble then you get 0.5pts.

I believe the narrative choice is to pick heads, like Johnny suggested because he is the inner voice of Cloud and gives us hints as to real Cloud’s feelings at different points in the game. Either way, Cloud gets the coin and says he had a hunch about the result.

After this it's away to Madam M's and the most hilarious choice I've ever seen! I have to wait until the room's clear before choosing because it's a watch from behind a cushion moment lol

Madam M won't help Cloud unless he agrees to a massage. Since our SOLDIER boi doesn't like being forced into decisions and has issues around touch and intimacy, not to mention he's stingy af and wouldn't drop 3k on a massage when he's previously hounded people for a lot less money. But, he also doesn’t stop to think about spending money if it’s worth this while. 1000g doesn’t seem like much of a big deal to him, if it’s his standard amount of bet on a sure thing. He wants to save Tifa, so he’d likely go with the standard course. The other one alludes to him being a cheapskate like Aerith accused and there’s no reference to the luxury course anywhere in the game except here. This isn't something he's doing for pleasure, he's in Wall Market to save Tifa, so the things he's doing are a means to an end.

If you pick the luxury massage you get 2pts with Madam M.

If you pick the standard massage you get 1pt with Madam M

If you pick the poor man's massage you get 0pts.

I chose the standard course massage because I believe that's what Cloud would choose just to get Madam M to agree to help them.

The next choice comes right off the back of the massage at Madam M's and involves Cloud giving an opinion of Aerith's outfit.

If you choose the first option it gets you 1pt with Sam and a pleased reaction from Aerith.

If you choose the second option you get 0pts and an angry retort from Aerith.

If you choose the third option you get 1pt with Madam M and a middle of the road comment from Aerith. No matter which you choose, Madam M scolds you.

Since by this point in the game Cloud and Aerith are friendly enough for him to pass comment on her outfit, I could see him answering with the second choice, but not the first since he doesn't even notice what anyone's wearing let alone have an opinion on it. The third option sounds the most Cloud-centric choice, so that's what I picked.

The last option is for Cloud to drink an unknown substance or not while waiting for his match to start at the coliseum. Johnny gives the explanation of what it is, who it came from and what it potentially does.

By choosing to drink the mystery substance you get 1pt with Sam.

By ignoring the drink you get 0pts.

Since Cloud is the last person to put weird shit in his body I went with not drinking it.

The final tally for the options that Cloud gets set him on Chocobo Sam's side quests for the blue corset dress that matches Tifa's canon outfit – she said dress to match, remember? It's also the one that in the ultimania Cloud looks the most at ease in.

Chocobo Sam's sidequests are the ones that I got as a result of choosing the options I did. I believe this is the canon narrative that Cloud would take if he were choosing. After several playthroughs I did waver on whose quests seemed more the narrative canon. I began thinking Sam's were, but then the ultimania illustration of Cloud embarrassed in the satin dress led me to think Madam M's were the narrative canon. After playing both sets of side quests, I've come to the conclusion that Sam's would be the narrative choice if Cloud were making the decisions.

Having Cloud's choices result in Sam's side quests we get burning thighs (appears in both), the party never stops and a dynamite body.

Burning thighs is the squats contest that echoes the OG storyline. We meet Andrea's little brother, Jules – who is totally not staring at Cloud's ass through the entire minigame while encouraging him. This side quest touches on egos and being cocky – which Cloud can be. It's a humble pie moment, which is another life lesson that Cloud needs to learn also.

The party never stops features the return of Johnny, who appears as we leave the dressmaker's son who's the originator for the quest. We're sent over into the bar, where we can collect the Midgar Blues single for the cd achievement. This song is canonically Cloud and Tifa's romantic theme in Advent Children. Once we meet the dressmaker, we're sent over to the materia guy who wants “the sauce” in exchange for “inspiration”.

This sidequest is a bunch of tongue in cheek dick jokes and it's hilarious! It's also alludes to the fact that Cloud has zero experience since he had a crush on Tifa until he left the village, spent his time pining for her as a grunt, then got stuffed in a test tube and was in a coma for five years. Ofc he blusters his way through it, handling his balls and making comments about how he doesn't need lessons on “whipping it out”. Oh you poor sweet boi.

Once we get the sauce – fun fact there's no picture in the inventory of it when you get it – and we hand off to the materia guy (unintentional pun but I'm leaving it in now I've done it – and that one) we head over to the next weirdo on the list. The chef. Who literally poisons all of his customers. I suspect he and the pharmacy guy are in cahoots. He poisons people, the pharmacy guy cures them and they both get rich.

The chef asks Cloud to help fix the problem with his kitchen – but from npcs around it sounds like it's just his cooking that's the issue. It doesn't matter which option you pick, Johnny still gets food poisoning. Even if you max your materia, nothing changes. Cloud doesn't even offer the options, Johnny does the talking.

Once we're done with the killer chef, it's over to the pharmacy guy, who asks Cloud to go and deliver medicine. If you maxed your cleansing materia you get 3 packets of meds. The only one that matters is the guy in the pub bathroom since that moves the side quest along. The others are optional, but increase Cloud's rep about town since he's helping more people.

The pharmacy guy gives Cloud a Honey Bee Inn VIP pass, which is the dressmaker's inspiration. Once that's handed back, Cloud chats to the dressmaker's son, who caps the side quest off with the below screen.

This is a reference to the dream that Cloud had during chapter 8 where his mother mentioned he should have a mature girlfriend. This is the contradicting opinion that balances that. The dressmaker's son saying age doesn't equal maturity is referencing Tifa – since these quests are the ones that get you the matching dress to her canon one. This is the same as the Midgar Blues playing in the pub. These are Tifa centric quests, which is the entire reason Cloud's in Wall Market to begin with.

The last quest is a dynamite body, which comes from Sam. Tifa has a bomb bracelet on her default weapon that is part of a matching pair with her chocobo bracelet. Tifa is represented by “da bomb” and everyone knows Cloud’s a chocobo head. This quest is referencing cloti, and a comment from the announcer using a mixed metaphor mentions putting on shades.

Afterwards Same tries to hand Cloud his cut of the prize money and Cloud says he's there for Tifa, not money. Sam replies that Cloud has changed since his arrival and could likely storm Corneo's place all by himself to save Tifa. He also mentions that Tifa is a bombshell and Cloud goes to confront him by taking a step forward and saying “Hey.” This is Cloud stepping up to people sexually objectifying Tifa.

Once the quests are done, it's back to Corneo's where Cloud considers breaking in – like Sam suggested – but Leslie uses Cloud's feelings for Tifa against him by saying Corneo could hurt her if he does anything he shouldn't. This isn’t the first time Cloud’s emotionally blackmailed in Wall Market.

Cloud backs down, but is now operating under the sense that Corneo is a lot more dangerous than he first thought, and he's sending Aerith in. Aerith. Who's useless in a fight. He's now thinking that he'd have to go in and save them both, which is why he says to Aerith that he's not letting her go alone.

We've now reached the point where Cloud's earlier refusal to do kid related quests gives us the result with Aerith's dress. Her theme has been given a slightly rock vibe, which is SOLDIER Cloud appropriate, and the design is something that she has chosen – this is in line with her OG dress which she chose herself. She also has a large hair bow, similar hairstyle to OG and her flower symbolism throughout – compared to the red dress which has stars that haven't been associated with her at any point. The straps on the pink dress – which is her signature colour – also match the straps on the OG design. Johnny’s around throwing cherry blossom petals, which match several of her abilities and are a reference to Zack. Aerith wore this dress for Zack. This is her Zack date dress. This leads me to believe that this is her canon narrative outfit.

The accompanying blocking to this scene is also more realistic than the other two.

Cloud's reaction to the dress is suitably Cloud. His jaw drops a little and he gets a bit soft voiced when talking to Aerith, though it's a quick moment that ends when he asks why she left Madam M's.

And now we're at the point where Cloud has to impress Andrea Rhodea. As long as you get 112pts in his dance sequence (great = 2, good = 1) then Cloud will wear the earrings with his dress, no matter which one it is.

This is the last choice you have and it's the tie breaker between the two girls if you chose to do all of the side quests for them. By choosing Aerith you get her resolution later in chapter 14, but in the meantime you get a short dialogue and then Tifa wakes up.

If you choose Tifa, this goes towards her resolution in chapter 14, but in the meantime you get a longer dialogue concerning the imminent dangers in sector 7 and also she questions Cloud about his relationship with Aerith. This is referencing all of the strange things about Aerith from her initial touch to Cloud’s wrist letting him see the whispers, to the whispers attacking them later in sector 7, to her not letting him leave sector 5, to her crying and wanting to go with him. Tifa’s question makes Cloud suspicious. It’s not romantically motivated on her part because her focus is on saving sector 7.

Cloud doesn't get a chance to answer, as Aerith wakes up.

Chapter 12

Technically not a choice -- in fact it implies the opposite -- because if you run the timer out in chapter 12 at the top of the pillar nothing happens. This is a message that all previous timed events were optional because that’s what the players wanted. This is saying that no matter if you try to choose to ignore Tifa or Barret or any of the plot, that the game will wait for you to move. There are no consequences to running this timer down because it’s implying that the time for optional choices has passed. Narrative canon only will commence from this point on.

The last optional choice in the game comes a lot later with the stairs and elevator, so anything that Cloud says or does between then is canon. All of the resolutions are canon, but we're only able to view one at a time because of how the game operates. Cloud is the witness to the resolutions because they’re Barret, Tifa’s and Aerith’s resolutions.

Barret's resolution is first because the lighting is much brighter indicating it's earlier in the night.

After that comes Tifa's resolution, which is much later in the night, but well before dawn.

The last resolution is Aerith's and she indicates that it's almost morning at the end of hers.

All resolutions are canon

Aerith's resolution is hinted at by Mirielle during the lost wallet and Kyrie sidequests.

Tifa's resolution is hinted at by Tifa, through Leslie in the chapter 14 intel gathering main quest where you hunt down Don Corneo. Tifa relates Leslie's fiancee's necklace to a symbol of reunion. Since the necklace has a reunion flower on it, that she's seen, and the only time she mentions learning about the meaning of that flower is during her resolution, this is the confirmation of it having happened. Also, the fact that Cloud was about to mention the meaning, then stopped because he thought it might embarrass Tifa – who'd been in a vulnerable state at the time – shows that he was aware of both the meaning and the resolution and Tifa's feelings.

Chapter 16

Last choice in the game and it’s between the stairs and the elevator. And as much as I love the stairs, Mayor Domino tells us later on that the stuff in the elevator is what happened.

Feel bad for Cloud having to confront his claustrophobia with Tifa there. He’s not happy at all by the time they reach the top.

In Conclusion.

Playing as though Cloud were the one making the choices was a lot harder than I thought. I tend to choose things either as he would, or close enough in most cases, but there were some choices that had me stopping to debate which was the right choice. Cloud's character development is a slow process and even though I know he's got a whole kid army in AC, I couldn't resolve that with his current personality, so that led me to avoiding the kid quests. This revealed that Aerith should have worn her pink dress in the narrative and the scene between them when she reveals it feels a very narrative canon type of scene.

Tifa's dress is the same no matter what. I also believe she'd be the narrative choice in the sewers over Aerith because of the content of her dialogue and the fact real!Cloud has a crush on her still. He often checks in with her to make sure she's ok and he has an overriding urge to support and comfort her even when he doesn't know how. The way she lands in the sewers is echoed later in several other falls, but there’s one in the opening of chapter 13 where she’s got her arm under her head. This is because Cloud positioned her that way after she got knocked out. This shows he’d go to her if he saw her hurt.

All of the events, options and side quests culminate in Tifa's resolution being the main narrative option we see, with Aerith and Barret as a second and third option through replay choices, though all three do happen. From Cloud’s pov, though, the important one is Tifa because that’s the person he cares about the most. You only get Barret’s resolution by being a closed off asshole and Aerith’s if you act out of character and more like Zack, which is what Aerith wants. The quest dialogue with Leslie shows the resolutions happened, which makes them narrative canon.

People can disagree with this, but I found the narrative canon a really enjoyable way to play – once I got over messing up in wall market with the dress and had to start again (the choices are hard lol). Seeing events through Cloud's eyes, instead of being like some puppet master telling him what to do so I could get the story I wanted to see, was a really fun way to play. I definitely recommend it!

#final fantasy 7 remake spoilers #the cloud narrative #cloud strife #tifa lockheart #Aerith Gainsborough #choice analysis #long post

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atopearth · 5 years ago

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Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age Part 1 - Fighting for Dalmasca

Got the PS4 version on sale so yay, can finally properly play this game. I finished the PS2 version back in the day thinking it was a crappy game back in the past, so let’s see if my opinion has changed😅 All I remember is liking Balthier hahaha. Anyway, poor Ashe, her husband died practically right after their marriage, it was supposed to be a marriage to make the people happy and show more stability in Dalmasca (her husband Rasler was the prince there) but in the end he died :( He was a pretty boy too. And as Dalmasca continues to try and protect their people and their territory, only more and more people die, including Vaan’s brother Reks. I always thought Reks was the cool and better looking brother (back when I first played it) so it’s saddening to see him die again. And omggg Vaan is so not cuteee, lmao, I still remember thinking Reks was the good looking brother and I wanted him to be the main character when I was young XD I feel like Captain Basch looks familiar…why did he kill the king of Dalmasca? Isn’t it better to have some sort of treaty rather than none, since now the Empire just takes over and does whatever they want? Hmmmm. And why did Basch have to kill Reks too? :( Reks was only 17😢

Ooh, Vayne is the Archadian Empire’s son and the new consul of Rabanastre. Vayne seems like the supposedly nice but manipulative guy that knows how to sway the people’s hearts. So Lowtown is basically the slums where the Empire throws anyone that disobeys them, pretty cool huh, you make supplies and everything destitute here to make everyone give up on doing anything since they have no job or money, and then up in town, you brainwash the people with kind words and making them accustom themselves to obeying the Empire, win win for them~ Vaan seems keen on sneaking into the castle to steal stuff though, does he want an airship that much haha. Yayyy, Penelo finally joined! Yes, please heal me and be my meat shield🤣 That flower cactoid was so annoying! Killed me with its 1000 needles😭 And omggg Montblanc (Centurion clan leader) looks like a rabbit but is actually a moogle?? What a funky moogle lol.

Lmao with the first distracting guards thing to go upstairs, it’s like c'mon guard dude! Vaan says “over here” and you completely ignore him and talk to the guy next to him?? Loll. I remember really liking Balthier when I was young, can’t remember much about Fran though😅 I wonder what the Goddess’ magicite that Vaan stole and Balthier wants is… And has Ashe managed to amass an army with the other captain guy in the beginning to destroy the castle and the imperialists? But what about the Dalmascan people that had to prepare that party?? What about Migelo..? Oh, was it actually the Empire who killed them, they knew that Ashe and then were coming to raid the castle so he planned to just destroy them easily like that with bombs and stuff.. lol at how snobby Ashe is when you save her in the sewers, at least she’s a useful healer! As expected, they all got caught and thrown into prison, poor Penelo that always has to worry about Vaan because he’s so reckless😞

Hmm, so Judges dictate the law and order of Archadia and are like the bosses of the Imperial Army, they look kinda familiar, do we have to fight a lot of them later? Ahh, so as I thought, the traitor guy that looks like Basch is probably his twin brother! No wonder when I first saw Basch I felt weird lol, I was like, I remember him being a good guy and faithful. Anyway, the Resistance guys don’t believe him or can’t accept him since his brother would technically be a Judge of the Empire then, and that’s not any better. So Vaan adopts him since he thinks that he can believe him😆 Too bad everything is finally a bit more merry but then Penelo gets captured to Bhujerba by those guys looking for Balthier (since they saw Balthier give something to her before he was thrown to jail). Shocked that Lamont is actually Lord Larsa, prince of the Empire and so Vayne’s younger brother! It was so nice when he helped Penelo out and is keeping her safe. He seems like a nice guy that sincerely believes that Vayne is a guy that will protect the people and give them the peace they want.

They’re always getting captured aren’t they, but I guess that’s what they gotta do to go save Ashe and Penelo. Seems like that guy who helped them (Halim, Ashe’s uncle, the guy who rules over Bhujerba) isn’t very dodgy at all, he’s just acting like that so he can conduct the things he wants to do in the background with less worry of the Empire suspecting him of rebelling. Well, now we have the whole party! I’m too indecisive though, who should be in my main party?! Anyway, understandable that Halim doesn’t think that this is the right time to act considering her lack of proof to show she’s the princess of Dalmasca and her lack of power tbh. He can’t do these things so rashly when he’s got people to take care of. Although it is also understandable that Ashe wouldn’t want to sit around and wait, so running off with Balthier and them to get the Dawn shard to prove her royal lineage, but I wonder how it proves it? Wouldn’t she be seen as a thief? And lol, Balthier is so soft with them, is there really treasure for him out of this? Sounds like more of a hassle to take care of a princess tbh.

I wonder why Gabranth (Basch’s brother) is loyal to the king of the Empire when he destroyed their hometown? Gabranth doesn’t seem like the type to be in it for power or something, he seems to really respect this dying king, enough that he seems to want to help fulfill the king’s wish for Vayne and Larsa to not go to war against each other after his death, since many people seem to want a king like Larsa who may be easier to control and talk to than Vayne who has a very strong agenda that won’t yield to anyone when it comes to his beliefs, imo anyway. I forgot to mention this, but omg there’s Japanese and English voices for the PS4 version and omggg, the English dub is so great, I tried the Japanese but just didn’t get into it, like dang, Balthier sounds so sexy. Gabranth sounds so great too. I don’t feel like I’ve heard Vayne enough to get a strong feel for it, but hands down Balthier is what makes this game for me right now lol. I can totally see why my memories of FFXII are limited to not liking Vaan (lmao) but loving Balthier, the leading man😆😆 Not only does he look awesome, his personality is great (I love all the banter he makes and how he focuses on his own objectives but is still pretty soft towards the rest of them) and his voice is the best☺️☺️☺️ Enough fangirling I guess lmao, but I gotta talk about something whilst I’m stuck in this huge desert zzzz😪😪 aaaand I finally made it out! Took me months to get out (I took a break from this game lmao).

Anyway, made it to the tomb! Great way to start my return to this game was dying to that Death Wall that comes smashing into you hahahaha, yes I didn’t realise you’d actually die if you don’t kill it in time hahaha. I couldn’t be bothered so I just ran from it and killed the next one lol! Mmm I see, the reason the Dawn Shard can prove her ancestry and rightful heir to the throne is because no one should know it is here in this tomb and even if they do, the tomb purges those that don’t belong so I guess you’ve got to be the right person or a super strong person to get it either way haha! It’s kinda funny how everyone was so guarded against Basch and yet Vossler ended up betraying them. Honestly though, you can’t blame Vossler. Indeed, Ashe is young and evidently naive as well, she has the heart and the resolve, but not only does she lack power, she also lacks the ability to look at the greater picture, currently anyway. She still needs guidance, but I guess Basch will provide that, whilst Balthier will provide her “reality”. I do admire Vossler’s loyalty to Dalmasca though, he honestly thought this would be the best way, and tbh Larsa is a good option to put your bets on, but I guess it just wasn’t meant to be…Especially with all the variables that could have gone wrong by relying on the Empire, but at least Basch acknowledged him and his beliefs before his death. Otherwise, guess the shards are all overpowered nethicite (stones filled with power, the shards are probably enough to destroy countries maybe), and it’s likely Vayne has other shards in his hands, time for the party to look for some kind of elders to understand how to use these shards~

Omg, I died so many times trying to get better weapons in side areas loll, guess it was worth it? The anger was real though lmao, I had to take a break hahaha. Anyway, surprisingly, the Garif who created the nethicite are clueless about it~ As for Larsa suggesting that Ashe kinda compromise and work with him to prevent war from happening within Dalmasca, I can see why it would anger Ashe to co-operate with the Empire, but at the same time, Larsa is right, the ones that would suffer the most would be Dalmascans if they allowed this war to happen at all. Aaand is Gabranth on Larsa’s side or Vayne’s? Hmmmm. Eruyt village was an unexpected place to visit, I didn’t think we’d get to suddenly see a bit more background on Fran. Didn’t expect that she actually has two sisters! But it’s kinda saddening that she can’t really hear the voice of the woods anymore after leaving it. I think when she stopped her little sister from leaving as well and talked about how she won freedom but lost her past, it was quite heartbreaking to think about. She ventured out seeking a land beyond what she knew of, and yet because she chose that path, she lost everything that makes her who she once was. In a sense, she’s probably a Viera only in name and appearance, and I think regardless of what she won from being in the outside world, she also equally lost a lot. Whether it was worth it or not isn’t even something she can or will want to weigh either, since she made that choice and can never go back no matter what she does. It’s just saddening to think about tbh. But I do have to say, it’s gotta be worth it for Balthier! Jks, but seriously XD

#final fantasy xii: the zodiac age #final fantasy xii

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ff15trashgoldenslumbers · 7 years ago

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When I first saw you

Oh, my gods! Loves, it's Golden Slumbers first anniversary! Whaa! (º̩̩́⌣º̩̩̀ʃƪ) I’m such a happy, little Olive! Thank you, everyone, so much! Just because it’s been a year since I meet you loves, I wanted to do some first meeting drabbles!

~~~~~

Noctis

You sat at the table, you had gotten all dolled up and a huge smile plastered on your face. You had just landed a job that would make your life so much less stressful, you honestly could not wait to celebrate and waited for your boyfriend to show up so that you could explode with the good news!

Your reservation was at 5pm sharp! You fidgeted with your dress wanting to look absolutely stunning when you revealed that you were stepping up in the world. This was the first night of the rest of your life!

You looked to your phone, reading 5:15pm, hoping to see a text stating that he was running late because of traffic. But there was nothing, you checked your previous texts. Yep, you stated at Grand Nox 5pm tonight and even sealed the deal with a kissy face. You got a response about 1:56pm stating “K”

Just “K”!

Maybe, he was in a meeting, he did have a few lately.

At 5:27pm the waitress had refilled your water again, asking if you were ready to order. You were, but he still had yet to show up, so you wanted just a little more time.

“I’m sure he got caught up in a meeting.” You smiled weakly.

When you checked your phone at 5:41pm to avoid the looks of all the other people in the restaurant, who had begun to cast apologetic looks, as they had already known what you refused to accept as the truth. Your boyfriend did this frequently canceled last minute or an hour after you already looked a fool, and then would call asking to crash the night at your place smelling of booze, and you dump him on the couch and go to bed. You had hoped with this good news you’d re-spark your relationship with something nice.

You closed the menu with a sigh, nothing looked nice to eat anymore and the night was ruined. All your excitement was gone! You shuffled from your chair, going to grab your purse. You were going to break up with that asshole for standing you up again and then drown yourself in some ice cream!

You heard a huff and heavy breathing, “Sorry, I’m so late! Meeting ran late, and traffic was horrible.”

You looked up, a man you had never seen before was sitting down across from you. His beautiful blue eyes glanced away from you with a small pink blush underneath them, as he removed his beautiful suit jacket, that looked like it cost more than your rent, car payment, and entire life combined.

As he leaned forward, almost as if he was going to kiss you he softly whispered, “I’m Noctis, if you want, go with it? Whoever didn’t show up is a dick.”

You couldn’t help but giggle as you nodded.

“I can’t apologize enough, anything you want is on me tonight, Sweetie.” He called loudly as the rest of the patrons returned to their meals, obviously happy that you got your happy ending.

You were rather happy that you did indeed go with the plan, Noctis was an absolute sweetheart, a little quiet but he seemed rather genuine with his affections toward you, and those beautiful blue eyes.

“You got the promotion! That’s awesome!” He beamed, causing you to flush at the praise. He didn’t even know you and he was so excited for you. He was so cute!

You honestly felt wonderful underneath it all, it seemed the perfect gentleman was across from you, you hadn’t even noticed that it had become so late. When you were offered his arm, after he paid for the rather expensive meal, no matter how much you offered to split, moving you to the door.

“Do you need a ride home?” He asked, scratching the back of his head, suddenly appearing rather nervous to meet your eye.

You thought it over, it would be cheaper than calling an Uber and you honestly ran the same risk. Only to turn pointing toward the large planter, “Would your friends mind?”

This got you an embarrassed chuckle from Noctis, as three men emerged from the planter. Once getting introduced to the men, who all seemed as good nature as Noctis, you almost tripped over yourself as a limo appeared.

“Y/N?” Noctis called, as you stared around the limo, first time being in one so you were a bit everywhere. “I was wondering if you wouldn’t mind doing this correctly?”

You beamed, “Give me one second.” You pulled out your cell phone, sending a text to your ex, breaking up with him, this wasn’t the first or even fifth time had don’t this to you, might as well cut him off. It was honestly a long time coming. As you hit send you turned to your savior of the evening, “I would like that, a lot, Noctis.”

Noctis handed you his phone,“Are you free tomorrow? Oh, wait you start your new position tomorrow, uh Friday?”

“Miss, Y/N?” Ignis called, as he opened the door, as you handed Noctis his phone back, allowing you to step out, Noctis following after you, walking you to the front gate.

“I’ll see you Friday, Sweetie.” You cooed, pressing a kiss to his cheek, before whisking yourself inside, where you celebrated in your one-woman victory dance. As you replayed tonight in your head you got a wall of text from a number you blocked rather quickly, you didn’t want those that couldn’t be happy for you or that you couldn’t rely on.

Besides you got a really cute text from a sweetheart, that said he enjoyed tonight. So that sent you to bed with a happy heart.

The next morning as you moved into your corner office, overlooking the beautiful Citadel, a donut in your hand, you turned as an intern rushed into your office holding today's scoop.

“Thanks, I’ll review it in just a secon…” You stopped, on the front page was the world's largest caption.

Prince Noctis New Girlfriend!

At least your face was partly covered by a fern, but that was your dress and your smile, and that was the man you met last night.

“Oh, my gods…” You whined softly. Only to shriek it louder when you dropped your donut! It was covered in blue sprinkles too!

~~~~~

Prompto

It wasn’t that he meant to stare, but this guy was seriously being an annoyance!

He’d see you sometimes in the morning doing morning stretches in the park when he went jogging. One morning he waved at you and you waved back! There was never any words between the two of you, just every morning, there was a quick wave and then you both would go about your days.

But it was pretty early in the afternoon, and Prompto’s cheat day demand, a Moogle cone. Gladiolus and Iris got him hooked on them, and from May to October, he would have at least two of them on his cheat day.

“So where’s your boyfriend?”

You froze, you had been attempting to turn his guy down for about 3 minutes and he just would not take no for an answer.

“All I’m asking for is your…”

Prompto moved between the man and you, his back facing the guy as he smiled, “Sorry, the line was longer than I thought. Got your Moogle cone!”

You blinked in confusion as your hands reached out automatically taking the cone presented to you.

“Go along with it,” Prompto whispered to you, before turning to the guy attempting to date you, his hand going to your own, ready to lead you out the way if need be. “This a friend of yours, Sweetie?”

You were still catching up, “Uh…”

The man scoffed, “Why didn’t you say you had a man. Whatever.”

You watched as the man turned around and left, before turning back to Prompto holding your hand, “Thanks so much.”

“It’s no problem.” Prompto smiled releasing your hand, “Oh better eat your ice cream or it will melt.”

You moved to hand the cone back to the man, only for him to smile brightly saying you could have it.

“If you want, I can wait with you until your boyfriend shows up.”

You flushed, “I...I actually don’t have one.”

Prompto blinked in confusion, “Oh...all then. See you arou…”

“Wait!” You called, causing yourself to jump at how loud you were. “I have to repay you for the ice cream.”

Prompto beamed brightly, which caused your heart to flutter, “No need.”

“But how am I supposed to go on a date with you?” You froze at your own forwardness, only to see that huge cute smile appear on his face again.

“We can go on one now if you’re free.” He smiled holding out his hand.

You didn’t even think twice before taking it, licking at your ice cream in the shape of a moogle. “You ever wondered why they don’t make a Chocobo one? Don’t tell anyone but I think they’re cuter.” You could have sworn you felt Prompto’s hand grip yours hard.

“I think so too!”

~~~~~

Gladiolus

You wanted to scream as you saw “that man” step into the bookstore. You came in here so that you could find a nice book to escape your horrid life at the moment. You moved over to the central hub, waving down your friend who workd there.

“Hey can you hold these for me, I’ll be back later to pick them up.” You called, before quickly rushing out the store.

“Y/N wait.”

You kept moving, almost sprinting into the courtyard of the outdoor shopping center. This was the second week! Couldn’t this asshole give up already?

“I just wanna talk!”

“I’m done talking to you!” You hissed back.

“Come on, Baby-Girl.”

“Fuck off!”

The man moved before you, as you turned to leave, you growled feeling him grab your arm. Turning as you shoved him away from you. “Don’t touch me, asshole!”

“Just let me talk!”

You growled, “Oh you wanna talk? You wanna talk about how I found you in my fucking bed with some bitch! You wanna talk about all the people who saw you out there with your tongue down some other girls throat! Fuck you.”

“Come on it’s not like that.”

“It’s not like that? Obviously, you need me a lot more than you think I need you. Lose my number and get out of my sight.”

“It’s not like you can do any better than me.”

You scoffed, rolling your eyes pulling your arm from him. “I’m done here.”

“You fucking, bitch…”

“There you are babe!”

You turned, seeing a rather large man standing before you who had caught your ex’s arm, that was going to swing at you with a baton. Your eyes widen at the weapon, only to turn to your savior.

“Gladiolus Amicitia?”

This was your first time seeing him in person, but everyone knew the Amicitia’s the King’s Shield. He was a lot hotter than the magazines made him!

The man gave you a wink, easily pushing your ex away from you, and then moving before you. No wonder this guy was called the King’s Shield, he was built like a fucking wall.

“Did my girlfriend, do anything to upset you?” Gladiolus inquired, he made absolutely certain that you were covered.

You ex scoffed, “Fuck you, Y/N.”

You didn’t even have to know that he turned tail and ran, he was always a coward, but this guy before you. Damn!

“Are you all right?”

You smiled, “Yeah, thanks.”

“Good to hear, wouldn’t want anything to happen to fellow Dynasty Will reader.”

You beamed at this, “You read Dynasty Will too?”

“Yeah,I see you at the bookstore reading every so often.”

You giggled, figuring that it always made you a nerd to like that series, “You know what, how about for helping me out, I get you a drink big guy?”

Gladiolus chuckled, “Only if I can get you one too, babe.”

~~~~~

Ignis

It wasn’t that he was being noisy, actually, it was but not that he meant to do it, but when you work in a pastry shop with a huge viewing window for customers its rather hard to not notice.

This little cafe was adorable, and also made an amazing cup of ebony. It was often that Ignis might find himself seated at a small table within view of the viewing area and catch up on a book or reports. Enjoying the soft chatter of patrons going in and out, or the relaxing music within the shop.

“I want to speak to the owner!”

This was the scene Ignis came in on one day, only to find you step behind the counter.

“Yes, how may I assist you?” You asked.

“I said the owner!” The man screamed.

“I am the owner of this shop, how may I assist you, Sir?”

“A woman, no one this place is such a shit show, you don’t have a man in charge! I said a blueberry hazel, and your little excuse of a barista messed it up! I demand a refund.”

You smiled, that retail smile, “I would be more than happy to get you a refund, Sir, please allow me just a moment.”

“I also want that little bitch fired.”

“Sir, I am not going fire my barista because of simple human error. She has apologized, and I have already issued a refund to your card. At this time our transaction is over and I will request for you to leave my store before I call the authorities.” You replied placing his return receipt on the counter.

“The authorities! Do you know who I am!” He growled.

“I shall have the pleasure of saying I do not. Now please leave!”

“I work for the King and I’ll have this place shut down and fucking ruin you, you bitch.”

“Bree, call the police.”

“You fucking bitch!” He barked, picking up his cup, before tossing it across the counter.

Ignis only managed to move before the man, lucky it was a warmer day and the coffee was iced. “She may not know who you are, yet I do Falsus, I’m certain that you’ll enjoy explaining as to why you were terminated for using your position to intimidate a citizen. I suggest you leave now.”

The man backed up, before leaving the shop head low.

Ignis turned to make certain that you weren’t hurt, only to find you had rounded the counter with a clean rag.

“Oh my goodness, I am so sorry about that. Are you all right?” You called handing him the rag so that he could clean his face.

Ignis chuckled, “It was iced, fortunately, a shame such a work of art had to go to waste.”

You smiled softly, only to realize that his jacket was ruined. “Oh no, please let me pay for the dry cleaning bill.”

Ignis chuckled shrugging off his jacket, “I assure you it perfectly fine, I would not mind a cup of this. It was rather delicious.”

You giggled turning to the girl behind the counter, “Bree, please an iced ebony for our hero today.”

“Of course!”

You walked Ignis over to his familiar table, moving back to grab his drink and snagging a pastry from the case. “A thank you.”

Bree's head popped up over the counter, “Boss lady, loves it when you come in! You should probably ask her out!”

“Bree!” You gasped, playfully scolding her, “I will put you on snickerdoodle duty again.” This only got you a laughing barista.

“I would actually be honored.” Ignis chuckled at your adorable expression. “Would this Thursday be fine, after the shop is closed?”

You smiled softly, “I would love it.”

~~~~~

Lunafreya

HOW! How was this happening! You had just told the Oracle, that you like sweet soft spoken girls. It was supposed to be a flirt between friends, you did it with the guys all the time. Which was the problem! You had no idea how to flirt with ladies anymore, and you just told the Oracle.

“Healers always make their way into my heart.”

And she without batting an eye goes,

“You know I’m the best healer in Eos right?”

You got so freakin’ flustered that you had to make an excuse to get up and find something for the both of you to eat.

It was already enough that you had the biggest crush on the Oracle, in all honesty, who didn’t? and Noctis wasn’t of any help in learning more about her. He just kept stating, “She like girls.”

What the hell does that mean!?

As you dug in your cabinets attempting to find something to snack on while you and Lunafreya watched some lazy movies, you didn’t even hear the woman approach you. Without her heels, she was really quiet.

Only to shriek as you felt her arms wrap around your waist and the Oracle placing a soft kiss on the back of your neck. You could feel your face heat up immediately at the action.

“Is something wrong, Y/n?”

You muttered weakly, before turning around, afraid to meet her gaze, “I...I really like you.”

“I like you too!” She smiled moving closer.

“No, no, I have like a crush on you.”

“A crush?”

You nodded.

Then she laughed loudly, “Oh my, I think we’re both confused.” She giggled. “I figured this was like our fifth date and you were taking it slow. I’m sorry.”

Wait! You were already dating? That was so easy!

You flushed even harder at this, “Then is it okay if I kiss you too?”

“I would actually like it a lot.”

You smiled, cupping her cheeks before pulling her forward pressing a kiss to her lips, humming as your girlfriend kissed you back.

Healers really did know how to aim for the heart.

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cosmiciaria · 8 years ago

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Final Fantasy Type-0 HD Remaster Review! (Spoiler Free)

Since I knew that this game was going to be 'darker' and 'grittier' than the main franchise, I KNEW I had to play it. Thing is, I don't own a PSP, so I tried an emulator, and the controls were awful, and if you played this game you know that speed and reflexes are everything. I lost all hope that I could play it, and I refused to watch another one's gameplay, because I wanted to experience it for myself.

Until I bought a PS4 and I got a happy ending! Well, at least for the beginning, because let's face it, this game is everything but a happy ending. Anyway…!

I really AM glad to have bought this game. No, I didn't buy it for the Duscae Demo, like many people did, no; I arrived a year and something something later for that demo, and also I've played FFXV prior to this one, so I was particularly looking forward to Type-0. And good lord, did I have a good time with this!

It pains me to see how underrated this game is. It's a treasure gem buried underneath the main franchise. It has 'Final Fantasy' in the title but people barely notice it. And yet, this game is more Final Fantasy than many of the latest entries, and yes, that includes Final Fantasy XV (although I find it hard to admit it).

FFT-0 is all about war. You play as Class Zero members: 14 teenagers with enough power and talent to wipe out a whole army. In this world, called Orience, magic works only at an early age, and, as people grow up, they lose the ability to use it. That's why they train kids since they are seven or eight years old, to turn them into young lethal soldiers. Class Zero is the best of the best, you won't find better warriors than these kids. I want to stress the idea that they're only kids: their ages range only from sixteen to seventeen years old, and still, they go out there to fight, to die for their nation, Rubrum.

Orience is formed by four nations: Rubrum, as I have mentioned, is the country you're going to defend, and it's under the Vermillion Bird Crystal protection; Milites, the antagonist kingdom, bears the protection of the White Tiger Crystal; Concordia, the land of dragons, is kept safe behind the Azure Dragon Crystal; and Llorica, strong though they were, they lost their Black Tortoise Crystal. Milites's ultimate goal is to lay hands upon each of the four crystals, for its own motives (won't spoil it for you, but, they're actually on point; it even makes you question who's the good and bad guy here), and you, as Class Zero, must stop it from achieving it.

The game mixes JRPG with strategic Warcraft III-or-Age of Empires-kind of elements. You have two missions: those that will let you go through 'dungeons' (they're not actually dungeons but dunno how to call them) and those that happen on the overworld, where you have to protect cities, domains, attack forts, guide your soldiers, etc. It's really a mix I wasn't expecting, and it's refreshing for those who think that this game is only about killing soldiers for the fun.

Also, between missions, you'll have 'free time' to learn things at class (with a moogle as your professor, cool af), breed chocobos at the chocobo ranch (then you can use them to traverse the overworld and to catch more chocobos!), experiencing events with classmates or other people, such as Mother or Commander Kurasame (a.k.a. Prompto's voice actor). Certain events can only be viewed while you're using certain character as the party leader, so make sure to change your main character as much as you can and to check every room in Akademeia to see if new scenes can be unlocked. Also you can take requests and tasks, and you can go to the overworld to train and to visit towns. There are also harder missions called 'Expert Trials', which have higher levels and are to be tackled on a second playthrough, but they still add lore to the story. Each of these actions will take certain amount of hours of your free time, until you arrive at the Mission Day, when you are allowed to continue with the main storyline.

The gameplay is just downright amazing, and it's its best feature. Each of the 14 members of Class Zero have unique abilities and unique set of animations, alongside weapons and spells. They're all very different, some of them are faster, some are slower, some have ranged attacks, others only melee and close ranged attacks, some of them resemble old class jobs in previous Final Fantasy games (like… really… you have one character that plays the flute: tell me when was the last FF game that had a fricking bard! And also you have the dragoon type, the monk type, the black mage, the gunner, I don't know, there are SO MANY). During missions, you'll have at your disposal three of the fourteen members, and you can switch between them on the fly; if one of them dies, you can replace them with one the eleven reserves that are left, and as this game is pretty hard on your first playthrough, you'll be using all of them because, YES, THEY'LL DIE IN THE BATTLEFIELD!! On the 'relic terminals' (a.k.a. the save points) you can change your party leader, so yes, you can have whoever of the fourteen you like the most as your main character, ISN'T THAT GREAT?

Along those lines, I'll recommend you to take your time and train all of them. Thanks to Mooglin's classes, most of them will be levelling up at the same time, but still, you'll have some ten or fifteen levels between your faves and the ones you never use. So please, give all of them some love and care.

I MEAN, I really want you to focus on this: we have fourteen characters, you can use the fourteen all the time, and they're not repetitive, they're all unique, and they're all useful, goddamn, what else can you ask? Like, really, then you compare this with FFXV and it gets on my nerves that you can only play as Noctis and not switch between the bros goddamn.

But, HEY, not everything's the gameplay, awesome though it is! The story is indeed deep and darker than most FF's. As I said before, we're at war, so, yeah, people die all the time. There are a lot of scenes which feature blood, and also, at the beginning, you'll witness the saddest thing on a Final Fantasy game (and this is no spoiler since it happens at the very beginning): the death of a bleeding chocobo. Goddammit didn't I tear up in that fricking moment. We start like this, what can you expect from the ending of this game? Oh, well…

Graphics are a thing now. I've seen many people complain about the outdated graphics, but shall I remind you that this was a videogame made for the PSP? If you compare and contrast the PSP graphics with the PS4 HD Remaster, you'll have to admit that for a PSP game it had cutting edge visuals. They were extremely meticulous when upgrading the models for the main fourteen characters, and sometimes, during Akademeia, it feels like you're actually playing an exclusive for the PS4. The lighting and shadows are on point, the water effect on the fountain looks gorgeous, and each of the Class Zero members, just as the members of each of the other classes, have these metallic things on their shoulders that reflect the sun realistically. Yes, NPC's and the overworld's scenery leave much (MUCH) to be desired; even towns look all the same (they didn't bother much with giving each of the cities a unique design I guess), but still, I can't complain, it was a PSP game. And it looks really, really great for a remaster. If I have to be mean (and regrettably honest), Final Fantasy X HD Remaster didn't get as much love as FF T-0 when upgrading, and I don't think Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age will have the same treatment either. So this is the best they could get: take it or leave it. Actually, you'll be so invested in the story and characters that you'll barely take notice of the environments. But if you really care about graphics, maybe this game will bother you.

The soundtrack accompanies the tone of the game. We're facing constant war, and so many of the tracks have this militarized tempo. I couldn't stop smiling when I went to the overworld for the first time and realized that the song on the background was the Chocobo Theme with a militarized tone. Like, really, could this get any better? The composer is the same as in Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core (also Tabata here, the same director, as in FFXV), and you know you'll be getting a lot of guitar sounds. Machina Kunarigiri's theme and Tempus Finis just leave goosebumps all over my body.

There is one big drawback, though (if you don't count the graphics thing): as we have so many characters, it's hard to build a proper character development for each of them. Some of them shine more than the others, but most of them have their final change during the last hour of the game. This is forgivable due to the player being able to experience each of the characters during gameplay. Yes, it would've been cool to have ten minutes of fame for each of them, but as you can play with the fourteen members, just by playing you grow fond of them in a way never imagined. It's the gameplay and the missions you do and the characters you choose and the strategy you think it's best what makes you love the characters. The only explicit character development here was for Machina, of whom I understood quite late in the game that he and Rem maaaaay be the main protagonists, who knows. You can say that it's Ace, because he's in the cover of the game, and also the one featured in Dissidia 2015, and yeah, he's like the face of the game, but I doubt he's the protagonist. If anything, Ace is part of the Class Zero, and let's say that Class Zero is your main protagonist.

Tabata has stated, in relation to this, that he wanted to make players think that it's the whole Class Zero the main character: not take each of the members as an individual, but the fourteen of them as a whole. And it kinda makes sense. And if that's what he wanted, he achieved it somehow.

There's another drawback, although it didn't come across to me as one, and it's that, if you wanna see the whole picture, you have to play the game at least twice. There's one thing in this game called 'Rubicus' that works as the compendium of the game, where you can see the bestiary, the tasks you've completed, the people you've met… and also, scenes and documents providing information, that go by the name 'Annals of Orience'. These Annals of Orience are going to be updated every time you complete a mission, one of the main storyline or one from the Expert Trials. And also, when you finish the game, you may see that you've unlocked a new series of cutscenes in the Rubicus. This happens at the end of your first playthrough, and also at the end of your second. It's quite advisable to play it a second time not only for this, but also because you can go for the 'crimson code' missions, which replace the main mission from each chapter with a new one, giving you a new perspective of the things that were happening while you did that said mission in your first playthrough. That's why this game needs to be played at least twice if you want to know 'most' of the things that happened. Good thing is, that it has a lot of replayability. The game readapts to your new high levels, and lets you also play new levels of difficulties, if you're digging the whole challenge thing.

There a TON of unlockables, and if you're a rookie completionist, you'll be spending a great amount of hours on this game. There seems to be endless things to do: I've already played it twice, and things kept coming and appearing, and it was like 'oh, my please stop I can't to everything'. So it has high replay value, if that serves you well.

I've mentioned before that this game is more Final Fantasy than the latest entries, and it is! Not only do we get all the creatures and spell names and everything we care and love from previous Final Fantasy's, but also we get these fourteen characters with one class job each; we get to fight Gilgamesh TWICE, and also he has a backstory, and also Enkidu appears! (Now he's getting famous again because of Episode Gladiolus). We havent's seen moogles since Final Fantasy XII (I'm actually not counting FFXIII-2 and Lightning Returns), and here they are professors and teach! We have crystals all over again! We have six main Eidolons, many of whom we haven't seen for a while (really, when was the last time we saw Diabolos? I think it was Final Fantasy VIII if I'm not mistaken). We have also the Main Theme of Final Fantasy hidden among the chords of the ending song 'Zero' by Bump of Chicken! I don't know, I was just so happy to find all these things. Oh, oh, and also, you can unlock a SHIP CALLED SETZER!! AND THE CAPTAIN WAS CALLED SETZER!! Ok, I'll stop fangirling right now, sorry.

The ending scarred my heart forever. I listen to the ending song, and I feel like I could cry at one certain moment remembering what was happening then. I just advise you to bring tissues and hot chocolate, you're gonna need them.

I'm actually subjective with this game, as you can see. So I'm giving it an 8.5 out of 10. I think it made the most out of its gameplay, and it did it well; it could've been better in the character department, but I guess it's forgivable (it wouldn't have been forgivable if they sold you an episode dlc for each of them, oh my good lord, I would've freaked out then). Story wise, it's a JRPG and of course it was going to feature a bunch of teenagers saving the world and stuff, but still, there are plenty of plot twists that will leave you hanging at the edge of your seat. The ending is bittersweet, the characters are memorable, the soundtrack is on point, and the difficulty is rewarding.

I just want to spread the word, and let the world know what a good game you have under your nose. Just dig deeper.

'History left them behind,

but we know them.

We are

right here.'

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