#squenix can we go back to happy endings next time

[aesadraws]

Of all the Final Fantasy games I've finished and love (which is to say I love all the ones I've finished and even the ones I haven't lol. Looking at you XIV.) why must I always become obsessed with the ones with tragic endings?

XII is the outlier and doesn't count.

[scatterpatter]

Some expanded thoughts on FF7R under the cut [SPOILERS]

So! Overall I freaking LOVED the remake and I can’t wait to see the rest! Midgar feels so alive and expanded, you really feel attached to everyone, it’s... muah! Honestly a lot of the points I’m gonna make are more nitpicks than anything. I won’t make any commentary on the gameplay because I watched a let’s play instead of playing by myself(im broke and cant afford a PS4 and $60 game >_>)

So the designs are GORGEOUS... no, the entire GAME is gorgeous. Midgar looks so good and detailed, there’s so much great implementation of color theory! Cloud is sooooo good looking!!! Barret and Aerith and Sephiroth are all GORGEOUS! Reno Rude Tseng and Rufus.. AAAA!!! The only slight complain I have is that- okay so Tifa looks AWESOME, but I honestly wish she wasn’t so skinny. Like she’s a melee fighter, but her waist and arms are so thin! I wish they gave her a bit more tone and muscle, but, oh well. I honestly can’t stop staring at the character models they look SO good

Plot-wise, I really like most of the changes/additions they made! Especially with Biggs, Wedge, and Jessie. They’re wonderful and I love them and did I mention that I love them because they’re just so dorky!!! And good!!!

Honestly, I like that Aerith is actually written to be likeable. I know that doesn’t seem like much but a lot of games fall into the trap of telling you that you’re supposed to like the female protag(looking at you, Breath of the Wild) or tell you that she’s a strong character, but they fail to show that, so the player feels like they’re just being told to get attached. Aerith, though, is actually really likeable in this game!!! She’s cute and down-to-earth, really dorky and even snarky, easily seeing past Cloud’s tough-guy act, and she can fight! It’s just so nice to see a game that shows a strong female protag instead of just telling you.

Legit everyone is horny for Cloud and I’m so here for it

Okay so like. I love Roche. I didn’t at first but he quickly grew on me. He’s so awfully chaotic and I just- I love him. I’m mad that he was just kinda forgotten, though. Like! He could’ve shown up at the ending chase!!!

THEY REALLY WROTE HOJO TO BE AS CREEPY AS POSSIBLE HUH. Like I’m not complaining because like he’s basically the reason why everything happened, but! Ahhhh he makes me squirm he’s a creep with a gross science fetish and I wanna stab himmmmm

Okay so. President Shinra is a little bit TOO stereotypically evil? Like having a gold statue of himself and not even caring about sabotaging one of his own reactors when one little console gets destroyed??? Like it’s almost comical how evil he’s written to be. Though, I do like the scene where he calls Barret out on his ideals, that was neat!

Nowww, Heidegger Scarlet Palmer and Reeve? MUAH. Heidegger and Scarlet are written so sadistically but like in such a likeable way, especially Heidegger. God I hate them both but you just love to hate them!!! Palmer is HILARIOUS- I love how he’s written to be the spoiled kid whose parents forced the other kids to include him so he’s just there even though he doesn’t do anything. And Reeve? Well...

SO REEVE IS MY FAVORITE ATM SINCE WE DON’T HAVE VINCENT YET, AND REEVE IS JUST... <3 <3 <3 Okay so first off, his design is perfect. He doesn’t really stand out in the same way that Heidegger Scarlet and Palmer do. He just has a normal build, normal suit, normal hair slicked back- he just looks like a normal employee, totally inconspicuous... which is very fitting considering how he ends up being undercover and needs to look inconspicuous ;)

Though Reeve shows clear signs of overworking himself and being emotionally abused by his coworkers which... sucks. I mean it’s good writing but I feel so awful for him- Like you know it’s bad when someone just has to hold up a hand to get you to shut up and sit down. I like that he tries to do good things but steps down when he’s told to, that he’s empathetic but cowardly. It does a great job at setting up his character arc in future chapters <3

Okay so one thing- I thought the build-up for the plate dropping was amazing, but honestly... the plate itself falling was slightly underwhelming, to be completely honest. Like- I just didn’t feel the impact that a plate falling would have! Mainly because, you don’t see a single death which is interesting. Like you see people running from falling debris, but legit not a single death is implied. Honestly? I thought the scene would have been far more impactful if they showed:

Seventh Heaven actually being destroyed

The people topside reacting to the ground beneath them collapsing and them falling to their deaths(They only tried to evacuate Sector 7 slums! Not the topside!!!)

More people actually being implied to have been crushed(No, Im not counting Wedge). Like in the original FF7 there’s a scene where someone’s watching tv and you see the plate falling from outside the window- and there’s a reporter just doing his normal shit before he suddenly looks up and things go to static- like- thats an intense scene and I wish the remake did more stuff like that!

They do great showing people REACTING to the plate falling which is why its so appalling to me that they dont show much of the actual devastation DURING plate fall

I LOVE that Cait Sith shows up at the plate falling! It shows that Reeve actually tried to warn people(something he asked to do and was denied earlier), even if he was too late. The only problem I have is that new players who dont know who Cait Sith is will be horribly confused as to who and why he’s there???

Also, when the crew goes back to Sector 7, you don’t really... feel the impact right away. Keep in mind, an entire section of city just fell onto another section of city WITH the supports holding it up, there should have been way more rubble. Yet, the area where Seventh Heaven is just... looks like it was hit with a major earthquake. There should be way more rubble, like mountains of it. It’s weird since the opening cinematic really captures the scope of how huge Midgar is, but the plate falling just doesn’t really show the scope of how much devastation there was to losing an entire plate.

The scope of it is done a bit better when climbing up Sector 7, but I still feel like the weight and scope of destruction isn’t lived up to its full potential.

Okay so- Wedge and Biggs. ... Yeah, it takes away from the impact of their deaths to have them not die. I mean, I can’t make a total opinion on this just yet, because the other parts haven’t come out yet, but... if FF7R is gonna keep them alive, they better have a good reason for it tbh.

They might have done a little bit too much foreshadowing with Cloud and Aerith? Like I like Cloud having memory issues, it’s kept pretty vague... but him going “Mother?” with Jenova is a little bit too spoiler-y. Like yeah you gotta tease his whole thing but like- don’t give it away this soon!!!

I also don’t mind Seph showing up as much as he does. Like, in the original, you don’t even hear about him until close to the end of the Midgar arc. Obvi since the remake ONLY covers the Midgar arc so far, I totally understand bringing him in sooner. Again, having the clones existing might be a little too spoilery for the big twists later on, but I can let it slide since it’s still treated as very “wtf” and I’m sure anyone new to the story hasn’t put it together yet.

Did I mention how much I love Seph he’s so creepy and his eyes are gorgeous and he’s so intimidating by just being there

And the Whispers... I honestly didn’t like them. I kept forgetting that they existed honestly. They just feel so... detached from the plot. I don’t mind adding new content/story, but the Whispers just... didn’t feel well-implemented. They also felt really campy towards the end. Like, the fact that they could un-stab Barret and shield Avalanche from car accidents while they were escaping? They were legit like “no you can’t die even if you tried because fate” and takes away any tension of the scene because... well, they know they cant die.

That being said, the ending was interesting. I uh. It was interesting! So they actually defeat fate itself in order to change... who knows what. The future, maybe even the past??? I’ve got many thoughts on this

If the future is changed, that can be exciting since people who know the original’s plot won’t know what’s gonna happen next so like- okay!

If the past was changed... y’all know I’m talking about Zack. Was fate changed so that he could live? Keep in mind, we see Whispers surrounding Midgar before they dissipate and Zack’s like “ohey did I get all of em?”, implying that fate would have forbade Zack from ever getting to Midgar. Having the team defeat fate means... Zack may have now reached Midgar. 

Is alternate reality/timeline stuff going to happen now???

Cloud’s character revolves around Zack dying. What’ll happen to Cloud now???

I feel so bad for people new to the plot who don’t know who Zack is.

Nomura... you madman.

So with the ending... Nomura and Squenix is setting something up. They’re going for something huge. I uh. I fear, honestly! Because this could very likely get WAY too ambitious and WAY too confusing(Think Dream Drop Distance’s bullshit plot), and could totally fall on its face and end up being Squenix’s biggest flop of all time. But... if this succeeds and they actually pull off whatever they’re trying to pull... holy shit. I would be floored.

I honestly am a bit afraid that the plot will be too confusing for new players. Like- no one would know whats going on with Zack unless they knew the original plot, so like while this would be a great game for FF7 fans, I’m really worried that it won’t be a good game for people new to the series.

Cloud in a dress is the greatest thing and I’m so happy they kept that scene I love him so much the entire scene is so queer <3

But overall, despite some nitpicks, it was a SUPER SOLID game and I’m soooo hype to see where they go with it! I wanna see Cait and Yuffie and Cid and Vincent!!!!!!!!!

[ohmylittlejyushimats]

miyu irino @ anime expo, 7.3.17

i started writing this earlier but fell asleep pretty much the second i got home and out of the car! i have to say that i am not very familiar with some of irino-san’s roles outside of todomatsu, sora from KH and haku from spirited away, so some of what i’ve written down has been supplemented by information other fans shared on twitter. if anything i’ve posted here is inaccurate or not a good translation reach out to me so i can correct it.

the panel started with one of the directors of social media services for funimation (i did not write down his name so i just refer to him as "the interviewer" here) briefly introducing miyu irino and discussing some of his more famous VA roles. miyu came out and said hello to everyone in english, which got a huge response from the crowd! he was very humble and said that his english wasn’t good enough to speak publicly. of course, he said that in english and i don’t think anyone in the room thought he had a poor grasp of the english language. he didn’t seem to struggle to find the words he was looking for. also maybe i’m projecting but i thought he sounded like he had a tiny bit of a british inflection to his voice when he spoke in english. for the remainder of the panel he mostly spoke japanese but he would jump back and forth between japanese and english occasionally. the translator that accompanied miyu onstage joked that there was no need for him to be at the panel and with that, we got started.

miyu began acting at the age of 4 in children’s theatre productions. he did not start as a seiyuu but spent some time acting in commercials and television before his breakout role as haku in spirited away in 2000, when he was a junior high school student. his career exploded after spirited away and he credits that movie and miyazaki with really helping his career getting started. miyu mentioned that when he recorded spirited away, the audio recording was done in a theatre with the director/production staff present in the same room as miyu instead of in a traditional recording booth with the production staff separated from miyu by a thick sheet of glass. he said that the recording process for this movie made him nervous because it was very much unlike a standard VA recording session. (at this point i noted that he was being excessively modest about how much english he spoke and that he sounded fluent to me!

at this point the interviewer switched over to talking about one of miyu’s most famous roles, sora in the kingdom hearts series. the crowd cheered wildly and miyu looked out and acknowledged a few KH cosplayers in the room, saying that they looked “lovely” which got the crowd super excited all over again. miyu was asked if he plays video games himself, and he said “of course!” when he was a elementary/middle school student, he would frequently play games for 8 to 12 hours at a time when he was on break from school. he said he enjoyed many different genres of video games and that mario and final fantasy/squenix games were among his favorites. miyu mentioned he had purchased the special edition ps4 with the kingdom hearts theme and was playing KH 2.8, and looked forward to “working hard and playing games” when he went back home to japan.

the interviewer then began talking about miyu’s character in mobile suit gundam, saji crossroad. (in my notes, this is where my handwriting starts to deteriorate as i struggle to keep up with the flow of conversation) his character had a lot of development happen over the 2 series of this anime and miyu said he tried not to read too far ahead of the lines he was currently recording so that his reaction to what his character was about to do or say would be genuine. as the show was airing, he said, the fans’ reaction at first seemed to be that of “do we really need this character in the show?” but a major event near the end of the first season changed his character development and the opinion of some of the fans as well. miyu found the role of saji to be challenging, but said that he was very excited to be part of the gundam franchise because it’s so huge and popular. he joked that he was said he/his character could not pilot a gundam but he was happy that he could be “part of a gundam" since his character’s vehicle attached directly to the gundam body.

discussion turned to haikyuu!! and miyu’s character, koshi sugawara, which got a huge response from the crowd. a few people in the audience held up their itabags for miyu to see. he wanted to know if we as non-japanese fans enjoyed the show and if we thought it was very different from what our junior high experience was like. the general reaction from the crowd was that it was very different from the atmosphere in an american junior high school. he was curious about how the show was received outside of japan but thought that the character he played was relatable because it was a role that could be identified with regardless of what you grew up with - he plays a character that’s vice captain of the basketball team who’s overshadowed by a younger, more talented player and has to struggle to compete with him (tell me if this is inaccurate, i really haven’t watched any of this show!). miyu said that the haikyuu!! manga is ongoing and to please continue supporting the manga if we wished to see more of it animated in the future.

conversation switched over to anohana and his character jintan, which was also very popular with the crowd. miyu saw this role as a great stepping stone for his career and considers it an anime that is enjoyable for people who are not necessarily anime fans. he said his character was a fragile person and that he viewed his character as a human role instead of just a typical anime character. from there he began talking about seraph of the end and yuichiro hyakuya. miyu said that he was surprised non-japanese fans enjoyed this show as much as they did, because it was not a very popular show amongst japanese anime fans. he said he tried to bring the fantasy aspect of his character to the forefront, since the story is from a fantasy manga that runs in shonen jump. the manga for this is still ongoing as well, so please continue to support it if you would like to see more of the anime in the future.

at this point miyu and the interviewer began talking about osomatsu-san and todomatsu, my absolute favorite of irino's characters. i got the impression that not everyone in the room had seen osomatsu-san, but the people who had watched it were loud and very passionate! when the interviewer initially brought up osomatsu-san, many of those fans started cheering and screaming TOTTY! over and over. miyu was incredibly surprised that osomatsu-san was popular outside of japan at all, since the humor of the show is "incomprehensible" at times and a very japanese style of comedy with lots of gags and wordplay. he said that even in japan, some people don't understand the humor of the show and he wondered how well it translated to a non-japanese audience. miyu asked that we tell him during the q&a session at the end of the panel what we found humorous about the show and what we as non-japanese speaking fans thought of the jokes that weren't really translatable into english.

discussion switched to miyu's roles in your name., garden of words, and a silent voice, which was about to have its US premiere later that day at anime expo. your name. had a very different production process than many of the other projects that miyu has been a part of, in that shinkai had finished the artwork for the movie and recorded temporary audio tracks of himself reading the lines of his characters before the actual voice actors were brought into the studio to record their lines. we were shown the trailer for garden of words, which was unsubtitled. i am still learning japanese but am not fluent enough to accurately describe what was going on in the trailer, but i look forward to learning more about it. we then saw a subtitled trailer for a silent voice. i started tearing up pretty much the second it started playing, which kind of surprised me. i am a fan of the manga and found it very touching and sad at times but i didn't expect to have such a strong emotional reaction to seeing it animated. i am really looking forward to this movie and i hope that i'll get a chance to see it in theatres sometime soon. miyu stated that the overarching theme of the movie, aside from the obvious theme of bullying among adolescents is human connection. he said that it a role that required very emotional acting from him, which was challenging. he is proud of his role in a silent voice and hopes that everyone will go see this movie and support it!

the final anime discussed was the upcoming code geass ova. i hate to say it but i was trying to write so fast here that i can't read my own notes. i'll upload pictures of what i was trying to write and maybe eventually i can decipher my handwriting.

miyu was asked what kind of characters he likes to play and said that his personal favorite role is sora from kingdom hearts. he has played sora for 15 years and wants to continue playing him in the future. he mentioned that in japan, aside from voice acting, he also participates in theatrical productions and releases cds. miyu asks that we come to japan and see him perform on stage and listen to his cds, and please continue to support him in the future.

at this point we were supposed to be able to ask miyu some questions, but there was only time for 3 people to ask questions (which i didn't write down because i was trying to get in the question line) before the panel had to end. i was fortunate enough to get an autograph ticket for miyu so when i got my todomatsu book signed, i told him i loved osomatsu-san, i hoped he would return to anime expo next year and to please bring the voice actors for the remaining matsuno brothers with him.