#there is so much more classic final fantasy magic and love in ff15 than I ever realized

[aberooski]

I realized this back when I last replayed the game a few months ago, but I cannot believe it took me 7 years to realize that camping and caravans in FF15 was them bringing back using tents and cabins on the overworld to recover your stats like in the old games 🤦‍♀️

[murfeelee]

My Top 10 Games of All Time

I saw this games list on my dash, but I felt it was dated, so here we are:

10. Tetris

I don’t like puzzle games and platform games and stuff. But Tetris might be one of the very first games I ever played, and to this day it’s just a ton of fun. Very nostalgic.

9. Castlevania

Vampires, medieval, bishounen, great story? Sign me up! I got into Castlevania while I was neck-deep in all things gothic and dark and creepy. It’s such a fun game! The Prince of Persia-esque mechanics with swinging from the whips and chains were freaking hard, and the dungeons were cool, and I love the out-of-place cartoony summons, that dial back the creep factor just a smidge so I don’t feel I’m trapped in Dark Souls where everything’s tryna give me a frikkin heart attack. I wanted so many more Castlevania games. But nooooo~! It’s all about effing pachinko machines now! Jim Sterling said it best: F*k Konami. >_<

8. Warriors Series

The ham and cheese of it all in this delicious sandwich of a Chinese, Japanese, and Asian mythology hack and slash series. Delicious. Tedious and predictable AF. But still delicious. Unfortunately, Koei just about tanked Dynasty Warriors with the more recent installments. U_U And it’s so hard to play the Samurai Warriors games since they bailed out on effing localizations, like thanks, that’s rude.  >_>

7. Shin Megami Tensei/Persona

I freaking luuurve how effed up and zany and twisted this dystopic cyber-ish world is. SMT and Final Fantasy have hands down the best summoning systems in games (Pokemon does NOT count), with an entire array of multicultural pantheons incorporated into the in-game universes. I swear, just researching the references they use is half the fun for me, cuz I’m that kind of nerd; sue me. :P

6. Legend of Dragoon

I never got into Final Fantasy 7 the way other folks did, cuz I was busy playing Legend of Dragoon, baby~! ^0^ The FF7 train whizzed on past me, but that was fine. I was happy right where I was. LoD’s battle mechanics were HARD, but SO good to master. I was always excited to keep progressing; the story’s one of the best I’ve EVER played (ROSE! My bish!); and the worlds and cutscenes and music were BEAUTIFUL. When TF is Legend of Dragoon getting it’s next-gen remaster with Cody Christian voice-acting Dart, Sony, huh, HUH. HUH!? >_<

5. Tomb Raider

My girl! ^0^ YES, I’m the RL archaeologist who’s never seen a single Indiana Jones movie (cuz eff ALL that racism), but you best believe I saw both the Tomb Raider movies, and played a crapton of the games! XD Gravity deaths, T-rexes, zombie samurai and all. Werk it, queen. With your double pistols. And Double-D cups.

4. Skyrim

I hate 1st-person perspective in games, in literature, everything. If they hadn’t added a 3rd person I’d’ve been like nope. But yeah, Skyrim’s freaking epic. It’s got DRAGONS, for starters, and sith lord lightning spells, and giant open worlds to explore, full of lore and magic, and one of the most amazing soundtracks of all time, and did I mention the dragons? I was so hyped for Elder Scrolls 6, but with Bethesda being frikkin INCOMPETENT lately *(*cough* Fallout 76 *cough*) I dunno about ES6 now. :\ If it stinks, I won’t be surprised. But Todd Howard KNOWS the entire community will FUS RO DAH his arse if it bombs! >_<

3. The Sims

Skyrim’s Hearthfire EP tried it, but NOTHING compares to The Sims franchise, allowing us to create our characters’ entire lives in a game. From birth, to childhood, adulthood, the elder years, death, and even afterlife, in The Sims we can control and customize every aspect of the characters’ story, to fit our own unique tastes and style. And that’s why I love TS3 the most out of the bunch, with it’s in-game Create-A-Style, open world with CAW and Edit Mode, and so much more. I wish all games had non-linear customizeable aspects where you can just sit back from the main story and quests; take a gander at your surroundings, build a house, marry that cute NPC you bumped into in the marketplace, have some babies, and let Alduin just do his thing till the next Dragonborn comes along; cuz I’m retired and living my best life in this here village; bye Felicia. 8)

2. Final Fantasy

No game franchise has ever made me cry as much and as hard as I did than while playing Final Fantasy. Holy. Crap. Their stories? THE BEST. EVER. You get seriously ATTACHED to these characters! Aerith, Angelo, Vivi, Sir Auron, Fran, Fang, the Regalia...they’re FAMILY! XD And the villains? ICONIC. Simply iconic. Eff Dark Souls; the side-bosses in FF are frikkin IMPOSSIBLE. SO dang good! And I love the touches of in-universe continuity, with Phoenix Downs, chocobos, cactuars, tonberries, airships, and the strangest fashion choices I’ve ever seen. Say what you will -- what I HAVE -- about certain polarizing entries in the series, but that’s just because we KNOW there’s a certain standard FF has, and a bar it’s classic titles have set, that you just don’t sneeze at. You just DON’T. (But FF15 was a piece of shhiiii~!)

1. THE WITCHER 3

If y’all can’t tell, I LOVE me some RPGs. Give me a set of beautiful ancient/medieval worlds to explore, full of elves and dwarves and of course MONSTERS; and protagonists with magical powers and big freaking swords, and I’m in it to win it, baby. Suffice to say: I WAS NOT READY for TW3. I STILL haven’t recovered from how good that game was! Even the MINIGAME within the actual game was legendary (Gwent had me BROKE, lemme tell you). And the Blood and Wine DLC was...like....something else; bumped it from a 10/10 to a 15/10, easy. The combat, the world building, the characters, the dialogue, the sidequests, the main plot, the MUSIC, UGH. If Netflix effs up The Witcher tv series Imma be MAAAAD.

[rose-belmont]

With the release of the long awaited Final Fantasy 7 Remake, fans of the original 1997 classic PS1 game have flocked back to the city of Midgar and to the world of Gaia herself- or rather, they see the characters walk into the wide world of Gaia as the closing credits roll. Final Fantasy 7 Remake is in interesting game to discuss. Having a discussion about this game has lead to a huge number of reactions, "you're just a purist, go back to playing your PS1 version and stop running everyone's fun", or "yeah, this new game sucks, how dare they do Midgar only, how dare they change the ending that much, what's wrong with Square?" Fans will either drop everything to destroy this game, or stand strong to defend it as if there is nothing wrong with the game. Both sides are rather extreme, if you ask me. I believe it is false to say this game is utter trash, yet it is also false to say the game is a perfect masterpiece of the modern era. This game does have its issues, but, it also has some truly great parts. I do wish, however, these great parts were more frequent than the less desirable parts. To put it simply, Final Fantasy 7 Remake (FF7R) is a mixed bag, that is perfectly average. It does enough right to look past many of its wrongs, but does enough wrong to overshadow much it does right.

Let's start with the part i feel it did mostly correct, the story. The story as a whole is largely the same, with enough differences to flesh out characters like Jessie, Biggs and Wedge. Jessie being a huge fan favorite, however i did not grow as attached to her as many others did. When this game is at its strongest is the small, interpersonal character moments, when Cloud and Tifa are simply talking to one another, seeing Barret as a loving father to Marlene, the entirety of chapter 9, the famous Wall Market chapter. These scenes are what i loved the most in the remake, and as a whole, they did the characters such justice with moments like these. I felt for Tifa or Marlene in ways i never had before. It was simply beautiful how much care went into this part of the game.

Next, the gameplay. This is where i have the most issues. The combat system is not itself bad, in fact, I like a more action focused combat, the free flowing, open combat reminds me of the Tales series. However, it's the smaller parts of the larger system that come into question. The stagger system is without a doubt a system i despise in these games. FF15 and 13 did not do these right, and 7R fails to use it properly as well. The slow build up of stagger, even from spamming an enemies weakness, is insane. You could spend over 20 minutes building up the stagger bar, only for it to fade away within 3 seconds. My biggest issue with this stagger system comes with the magic in the game. The fastest way to stagger an enemy is to hit them with their weakness, which is often a form of magic. However, your actual MP pool is so insultingly low, you can barely cast 3 spells before running out, and having to waste precious time to use multiple ether items. Its an unbalanced mess that doesn't feel like it was fully tested and prepared properly.

Next, exploration, and the lack of size in Midgar. If you aren't aware, FF7R is only the Midgar section of the game. Midgar is the opening city in FF7, in the original game it takes on average around 5 hours to get through, 10 if you aren't sure where to go or what to do. Midgar is for all purposes, the set up of the story as a whole. Its important, yes, but disappointing that it is the only part we see in FF7R. However, this gave fhe developers so much freedom in designing a huge, sprawling metropolis for us to explore. Midgar could have been this unforgettable experience in the remake. Unfortunately, they did not do this. Midgar is no bigger than it ever was in the original. We see a handful of new places, yes, but they are deligated to bring hallways or singular rooms. So what did they do to stretch this 5 hour segment into the 30-40 hour game they released? Padding. Mountains or worthless padding that does nothing but artificially inflate game time. One example is the area known as the Train Graveyard. In the original, this area is a short 10-20 minute area you pass through on your way back to Sector 7 of the city. In 7R, the graveyard is a multiple hour long disaster of a maze with a sub plot involving ghost children that goes nowhere, and does nothing but show that Aerith was alone as a kid. It doesn't build upon her character whatsoever, it purely wastes the players time with nonsense.

Next, the music. I will not claim to be a master of music, I like music often considered bad, we all do. However, I can acknowledge the butchery of Nobuo Uematsu's classic soundtrack. Many songs are updated very, very well. However, just as many are ruined by popular stylings like techno or eurobeat style remixes.

Next, summons. My only real issue is the limit of one summon per character. Overall, i think summoning was handled rather well, gameplay wise.

Lastly, the ending. I will not spoil it, but i can say this: the ending is very, very divisive. I myself am not huge on the ending. I think it is Nomura being allowed to much freedom with this project, and letting him make it to similar to the way he writes the Kingdom Hearts stories. But, i do think this is an interesting time to bring up why i personally believe the ending is as divisive. Simply look at the name of the game. Final Fantasy 7 Remake. This is a remake. This game was marketed as and sold as a remake of FF7. This is 100% false. This game, as stated by Nomura, is a reboot, a reimagening. Square marketed and sold this game as a remake, and as such, the game shall be judged as one.

TL;DR, the game has some true positives, yet these positives are outweighed by a mountain of negatives that detract to much from the experience to consider this a good game. Its average at best, mediocre at worst.