#the soundtrack was perfection

[bloomood]

Finished final fantasy 16 last night and had some (many) thoughts, spoilers below!

so, clive’s massive honkers…..

First off I just want to say this game was AMAZING. The if the sound track doesn’t win every award it’s nominated for then it should literally be a crime. I’m serious, every main characters theme got me so hype and especially the soundtracks in the Ultima fight… oh my god… when Clive’s theme kicked in at the end I wanted to cry it was so good.

To also mention my gripes with the game: I didn’t really like how the gear and loot in the game really didn’t matter. The buffs you got from accessories weren’t cool to acquire, and honestly you could probably play through the game on the normal action difficulty mode without any accessories and not feel a difference.

(Exception being the berserker ring which gave you empowered attacks on a perfect dodge. I wish every or more accessories could be as impactful as this one.)

I do also think this would’ve tied naturally in with having more overworld enemy diversity. Having status ailments, resistances, etc., coming from gear or just knowing that enemies would be varied in certain areas and hurt you in different ways would’ve added a much needed layer of depth.

I also had a big issue with the game’s pacing. It has such INSANELY epic highs, and then some very boring low segments. The world and meeting new characters in these low segments was still nice I just wish it was handled a bit better instead of being so jarring. Hand in hand, the side quests. Oh my god. The pay off in the end if you follow the side quests chains all the way through was so amazing, but the way they’re littered out with fucking CLUMPS inbetween main story (looking at the 12 side quests now available right before the finale) drove me crazy.

One last slight negative was the handling of Jill, but I don’t think I’m as angry or disappointed as a lot of others. I think her story was fantastic, herself as a character is lovely, I just wish she had more dialogue in general whenever she was traveling along with the party. Just more things to say in cutscenes and overworld questing would’ve done a lot.

Now onto the positives. Combat, amazing, felt so satisfying and really made you feel badass throughout the game even when you’re just fighting some bees. Music. Amazing. Titan’s battle and soundtrack coming in will be an unforgettable moment for me.

The BOSS FIGHTS. Like what can you even say about them that hasn’t already been said. These are the most insane setpieces I’ve experienced in a videogame. The music and the cinematics made me CRAZY, a game hasn’t made me audibly scream and stand up mid combat in forever like this game repeatedly has done. I’m also a big fan of QTEs in general so I may be a bit biased there, but the addition of them made me feel super cool in these cinematic moments.

The characters are standout as well. I am REALLY surprised with how amazing Gav was as a side character. He really grows right alongside Clive to the very end. Uncle Byron doesn’t get as much love as he should with how beautiful of a man he is. Mid as well brings such a needed dynamic and personality into the hideout in an otherwise bleak setting of the blight ravaging the world. The entire side character and quest cast just gives them so much personality as you’re running around the hideout, Otto and Charon especially grew on me very quickly.

Cid, Cid, Cid. It’s crazy how he wasn’t in the game even for the entirety of it but he left such an impact on the player, the characters, and the world. Him and really everyone in the game had such stellar voice acting that they’re unforgettable. Torgal is the best boy, and his side quest chain into the final one really tugged in the heart strings and I’m glad they gave him so many moments including big, and little interactions with the world.

Dion, Joshua, Jote, Jill, all just kept hitting. Dion especially of the batch is iconic and I’m really glad he was so well received from the general player base both for how insane he and Bahamut is, and how nicely written of a character he is. Joshua and Jill both grew up alongside Clive, and little things from the brief childhood history kept showing up repeatedly in the story in their personalities and it made the ending even more gut wrenching. I love them all.

To talk about the Antagonists, I thought they all were interesting and served their purpose well. I wish Barnabas had more time to naturally share things about himself, motive, etc. I feel like his arc along with Clive was a bit rushed character wise, but maybe that’s just because he didn’t have much else to show given how he was all about being Clive’s foil, already having surrendered his will and human drive to Ultima. But he was definitely the most badass of the antagonists strength wise, legit terrifying.

Hugo and Clive’s rivalry was my favorite though. Mainly because how it wasn’t anything heroic between them, it was just rage. Vengeance, just a desire to wipe the other off the face of the planet. It was so cool to see, especially in a Final Fantasy game, and both their dialogues and voice acting were amazing. I didn’t have a problem with ultima as an antagonist, they had a cool design and played the role of detached god-thing perfectly to me. The final battle with the eikon’s all showing up and the multiple stages gave me CHILLS.

The ending seems to be the most divisive aspect of the game. I can see both arguments. It can be seen as really too open ended; almost like the writers themselves didn’t want to conclude the story so they left as much vague symbolism and hints as possible in the last 10 minutes.

But I also don’t mind it, it leaves so much for interpretation and discussion up to the player and fan that it can be, and mean, anything you want it to be. That was the point of Vivian’s final quest wasn’t it? That truth was just belief, the strength of a people’s belief.

Until CBU3 release some DLC or canonize any ending of course. Heh.

Beautiful game I will think about forever. Thank you for this final fantasy. These are all my opinions of course and I’m not stating anything I think as fact. Happy to discuss the game ^_^

[saturnvs]

i hear the wind across the plain a sound so strong, that calls my name it's wild like the river, it's warm like the sun yeah, it's here, this is where i belong

[linusbenjamin]

Prometheus stole fire from the gods and gave it to man. For this he was chained to a rock and tortured for eternity. Oppenheimer (2023) dir. Christopher Nolan

[firelise]

Film & TV I Think About A Lot » Cinderella (1997) dir. Robert Iscove; prod. Whitney Houston

"A shoe made out of glass? Who dances in GLASS shoes??"

[braceletofteeth]

Even though I'm not good in school, I have a pretty good understanding of love. I wonder how good you are. How about we switch things up? You don't have to do all the teaching yourself. Let's learn together. Is that okay?

[meowdy-all]

Jayce Talis is the perfect shape to put through the horrors and satisfy my need for hurt/comfort. I need more fics about Viktor finding out about how Jayces time in the other world affected him. Like yes, he saw the world, but i need him to find out about the leg,specifically the infection, the months of solitude (which he was driven insane by), the starvation, the lizards, the hallucinations. The dude's been suffering for months and has not had a moment to spare for anything good. Let his husband comfort him.

And i know jayces suffering is meant to be a mirror of viktors. Im not discounting that. Hell, viktor more than deserves to be comforted. But this fandom tends to overlook how fucking traumatic what jayce went through was.

Isolation is a tourture method. Jayce literally went mad. He's drawing and writing on walls, and he's hallucinating. The human mind is cruel and even worse when you have guilt, which jayce has PLENTY of.

And if how it affected him mentally doesn't get you, let's talk physically. Resetting your own bone is a gamble, and it obviously healed wrong. He can't walk on it, so in order to survive, he has to move. And as someone who has problems with her own legs, there two was to do that and both are fucking Humiliating. He's at the bottom of a ravine. there's no food, and the water obviously isn't clean. Injesting either is a bad idea and a gamble, but it's the only food and water source he has.

Look at him before!

(Gif by @melmedarda )

In season 2

He's a shade or 2 lighter. He has stress lines, scars on his face and lips, and he's visibly lost weight. (The animators fucking SLAYED with that.) My man looks so fucking tired. Hes what? 31? 31 year olds dont look that fucking exhausted for no reason, and I wish we talked about it more.

[thelaurenshippen]

every day around 2pm, a cream colored long-haired dachshund comes prancing up the street on her walk and every time I gasp and say out loud to myself "oh there goes our girl!" and one day my office window is going to be open and her owner will hear me and I'll have to move

[starmocha]

I'll be honest, everyone. For all of the horny postings, cuteness aggression, and general tomfoolery, this is what I am most excited about. I feel like a lot of us have been begging for the music to be released in some sort of format, and the devs are finally answering our pleas 🎉

Volume 1! The implication that there will be more in the future!

68 tracks! Good golly gee! This is even better than expected. 😭😭😭

[intramoon]

We are so back with Brutally Soft!! ⤷ story work in progress with me trying some new stuff we'll see how it goes!

[danwhobrowses]

So I finally got to binge the final episodes of Cobra Kai and like, god fucking damn. Some of it was cheesy as fuck don't get me wrong but every episode got me welling up.

Seven years, born on a no-chance-of-survival Youtube premium service, who knew exactly how to use its nostalgia, and both the old and new characters evolved so much.

The story's over, but Cobra Kai never dies.

[writersshitpost]

My favorite process of writing is making a playlist

[bizlybebo]

i give up ignore how bad this looks . but just. this fucking movie man

[luxe-pauvre]

NOVEMBER 2024

Read:

against brute forcing

What the Left Keeps Getting Wrong

Why Democrats Are Losing the Culture War

How not to freak out about the US election

How not to freak out about the US elections, part two

Toleration is an impressive virtue that’s worth reviving

Learning and Not Learning Abortion

Objects of Despair: Mirrors

What Counts as Seeing

Why Power Brings Out Your True Self

Group think: why art loves a crowd

Real peer review has never been tried

The big idea: is convenience making our lives more difficult?

What Is Masterclass Actually Selling?

Feeling overwhelmed? How art can help in an emergency

the divine discontent*

How to Be Polite

Yes, Social Media Really Is Undermining Democracy

Chemistry: The Human Science

Astronomical Cake

Watched:

what can you ACTUALLY learn from video essays??

The Diplomat (S2)

Sweetpea

Silo (S1)

Listened To:

Charli xcx’s brat and it’s the same but there’s three more songs so it’s not**

Challengers (Original Score)**

Went To:

More meetings than I've ever had in a month. Why everyone has decided they want to do everything everywhere all at once this November, I do not know.

A meditation retreat (aka a 4hr exam that I invigilated).***

[bookswebothdrowned]

Brb gotta go lay in the woods and decompose while listening to The Amazing Devil, Hozier, Paris Paloma, Rabbitology and Sleep Token.

[anthurak]

I think few things epitomize Ruby Rose’s utterly defiantly optimistic, hopepunk protagonist nature quite like the fact that her two main musical motifs tend to be either soft, melancholic/mysterious solos like the ‘Red Like Roses’ theme, OR utterly hardcore shredding powermetal that often feels right out of a DOOM game XD

[memoryisthemonster]

As I said, THE QUEEN HAS RISEN FROM THE ASHES!!!

I'M DISEASED AND ROCKSTAR LESTAT WAS THE ONE WHO KILLED ME!!! HE'S PERFECT!!!