FilthyEmi
Good lord, ok so there's a billion and one things to say about the game.
Firstly, the combat is GREAT. I really like the positioning elements as well as the card system. The card system and how environmental attacks play off each other is especially great. Some cards let you get more turns, others buff you for one or several turns, and some other ones are either indescribable amounts of damage or some really cool positioning related attacks, like portals or creating a field that makes your teammates heal and become immune to one attack. It's great and becomes really in-depth and a little stressful at the end, especially if you actually bother to up the difficulty like I did (I went up to Heroic III but I toned it down to Heroic II for sanity's sake).
Story is pretty simple, there's a prophecy and you wanna stop it. Some twists are expected, others are pretty surprising and a little hype (final fight has a really good one). I think the game shines most strongly in its character writing. And I'm like 80% sure people are gonna get irritated at the group taking every single chance to argue possible, but I think that leads to some good dynamics. They argue, cliques form, some people like others more, some people hate others more, but they still try to work together. And when upping your relationships with the individual characters, that's when the writing becomes the best. It's fun seeing how these characters develop, how having the MC in their lives changes their views a tad bit and how they start trusting you more and more. It's quite literally Western Persona, so that's really cool. Game took me 70 hours to beat, and yeah honestly it could slog at times, but the character writing helped me through near the end. I absolutely recommend it to everyone, it's a fun time and probably one of the best Marvel games ever made. It's such a shame it flopped commercially cuz I'd love to see these ideas expanded upon with other Marvel groups: X-Men, Avengers, etc.
Firstly, the combat is GREAT. I really like the positioning elements as well as the card system. The card system and how environmental attacks play off each other is especially great. Some cards let you get more turns, others buff you for one or several turns, and some other ones are either indescribable amounts of damage or some really cool positioning related attacks, like portals or creating a field that makes your teammates heal and become immune to one attack. It's great and becomes really in-depth and a little stressful at the end, especially if you actually bother to up the difficulty like I did (I went up to Heroic III but I toned it down to Heroic II for sanity's sake).
Story is pretty simple, there's a prophecy and you wanna stop it. Some twists are expected, others are pretty surprising and a little hype (final fight has a really good one). I think the game shines most strongly in its character writing. And I'm like 80% sure people are gonna get irritated at the group taking every single chance to argue possible, but I think that leads to some good dynamics. They argue, cliques form, some people like others more, some people hate others more, but they still try to work together. And when upping your relationships with the individual characters, that's when the writing becomes the best. It's fun seeing how these characters develop, how having the MC in their lives changes their views a tad bit and how they start trusting you more and more. It's quite literally Western Persona, so that's really cool. Game took me 70 hours to beat, and yeah honestly it could slog at times, but the character writing helped me through near the end. I absolutely recommend it to everyone, it's a fun time and probably one of the best Marvel games ever made. It's such a shame it flopped commercially cuz I'd love to see these ideas expanded upon with other Marvel groups: X-Men, Avengers, etc.
Off the bat, not as solid of a package as the OG 7 and that's partially due to the fact this is an incomplete story but also due to some very real and very obvious pacing issues. They clearly wanted to spend some more time in certain sections, as shown with all the side quests, but wow sometimes it comes to a screeching halt and it feels very slow.
But despite that, the game is absolutely amazing. Combat is incredibly fun, I enjoyed doing a hellish amount of damage with Cloud using staggers, and the way each of the 4 playable characters played was fun.
Story is still great and the ways in which this story subverts, or attempts to anyway, the original is great and lead to some very cute, awesome, and sad moments. Even the slow pacing doesn't take away from the Remake's original scenes, they're all a joy to witness for one reason or another, and even coming fresh off of 7 it didn't feel like I was treading old ground when so much of it was new. And I have to say, the ending just absolutely captured some of my favourite tropes, and it's an absolutely amazing homage to the final fight of the original. And the ending past that introducing new elements for the Remake canon is just hype inducing.
Music is great, too. So many awesome remixes, some great new tracks sprinkled here and there, and just a raw energy to some of them that make them just as memorable to the original.
Characters are portrayed awesomely by their VAs and getting to hear these characters coming to life makes me incredibly happy. Only one I'd say I have an issue with is Cloud's VA, he seems to be stilted in some pieces of dialogue that doesn't seem to be an intentional bit for his character. Regardless, characterization is awesome.
I think this Remake even if I give it a lower score than the OG game absolutely deserves praise for creating such a beautiful rendition and reimagining of the original Midgar section. It sets up so much, and I'm excited to see how it handles it in Rebirth.
But despite that, the game is absolutely amazing. Combat is incredibly fun, I enjoyed doing a hellish amount of damage with Cloud using staggers, and the way each of the 4 playable characters played was fun.
Story is still great and the ways in which this story subverts, or attempts to anyway, the original is great and lead to some very cute, awesome, and sad moments. Even the slow pacing doesn't take away from the Remake's original scenes, they're all a joy to witness for one reason or another, and even coming fresh off of 7 it didn't feel like I was treading old ground when so much of it was new. And I have to say, the ending just absolutely captured some of my favourite tropes, and it's an absolutely amazing homage to the final fight of the original. And the ending past that introducing new elements for the Remake canon is just hype inducing.
Music is great, too. So many awesome remixes, some great new tracks sprinkled here and there, and just a raw energy to some of them that make them just as memorable to the original.
Characters are portrayed awesomely by their VAs and getting to hear these characters coming to life makes me incredibly happy. Only one I'd say I have an issue with is Cloud's VA, he seems to be stilted in some pieces of dialogue that doesn't seem to be an intentional bit for his character. Regardless, characterization is awesome.
I think this Remake even if I give it a lower score than the OG game absolutely deserves praise for creating such a beautiful rendition and reimagining of the original Midgar section. It sets up so much, and I'm excited to see how it handles it in Rebirth.
So take everything good I said about Remake, make it shorter and remove the pacing issues, and you get INTERmission.
Yuffie didn't have too much character in OG due to being optional, but I love how they expanded on her here. She's still definitely greedy, but she's also a good person, and her relationship and dynamic with Sonon was great. He quickly became a fav, and I loved all their moments together. They bounced off each other like rubber balls against a concrete wall, and I couldn't be happier. I think this was content completely original to Remake, so going with that thought it was fucking amazing. Like, they just absolutely know what they're doing. The story still had plenty of side content to do if I wanted, and I did do all of it except the board game, but the story doesn't dilly-dally and actually gets going a lot quicker than Remake, even though Remake starts with the iconic mission it quickly slowed down after that. INTERmission remains at a good pace the entire time, and even the short 5ish hour run time doesn't detract. It's fun, it's heartbreaking, Yuffie is fun as all hell to play as, and honestly it's my favourite part of Remake. It's honestly a perfect little DLC.
Yuffie didn't have too much character in OG due to being optional, but I love how they expanded on her here. She's still definitely greedy, but she's also a good person, and her relationship and dynamic with Sonon was great. He quickly became a fav, and I loved all their moments together. They bounced off each other like rubber balls against a concrete wall, and I couldn't be happier. I think this was content completely original to Remake, so going with that thought it was fucking amazing. Like, they just absolutely know what they're doing. The story still had plenty of side content to do if I wanted, and I did do all of it except the board game, but the story doesn't dilly-dally and actually gets going a lot quicker than Remake, even though Remake starts with the iconic mission it quickly slowed down after that. INTERmission remains at a good pace the entire time, and even the short 5ish hour run time doesn't detract. It's fun, it's heartbreaking, Yuffie is fun as all hell to play as, and honestly it's my favourite part of Remake. It's honestly a perfect little DLC.
A huge upgrade over Remake in every way: gameplay, music, pacing, characters, side quests. The open-world checklist aspects can definitely be the sort of thing that annoys people, but it isn't that bad honestly. It's fun getting to run around, earning points to exchange for some really awesome materia while getting exp and doing side quests related to some of those checklist tasks. It really is just fun.
Right off the bat, the game has an amazing opening that it follows through on as the chapters progress, but more importantly it coalesces into an indescribably incredible and simultaneously confusing final chapter. Everything up till then is understandable and falls in line with the progression of OG (along with Vincent and Yuffie being non-optional now which means they get some great interactions with the rest of the cast), but that final chapter is when the plot really becomes its own. And the final fight, the genuine gauntlet that is the final boss is superb, and it amazes they did it: it makes me wonder what they're gonna do for the final fight of the third remake.
And the ending. It's amazing, so melancholic yet you almost can't focus on your sadness cuz there's something even more pressing going on, something way more pressing than the OG's plot.
Overall this game definitely cements the remakes as amazing titles, and I just hope the finale manages to stick the landing. I believe OG is still better as of now because it's a complete plot and it doesn't have the very spoiler-heavy plot point going on, but I think that if the final game can stick the landing then this game series will be on par with the original and serve as an amazing follow-up to it. But time will tell on that, for right now, Rebirth is an incredibly solid game and has me excited.
Right off the bat, the game has an amazing opening that it follows through on as the chapters progress, but more importantly it coalesces into an indescribably incredible and simultaneously confusing final chapter. Everything up till then is understandable and falls in line with the progression of OG (along with Vincent and Yuffie being non-optional now which means they get some great interactions with the rest of the cast), but that final chapter is when the plot really becomes its own. And the final fight, the genuine gauntlet that is the final boss is superb, and it amazes they did it: it makes me wonder what they're gonna do for the final fight of the third remake.
And the ending. It's amazing, so melancholic yet you almost can't focus on your sadness cuz there's something even more pressing going on, something way more pressing than the OG's plot.
Overall this game definitely cements the remakes as amazing titles, and I just hope the finale manages to stick the landing. I believe OG is still better as of now because it's a complete plot and it doesn't have the very spoiler-heavy plot point going on, but I think that if the final game can stick the landing then this game series will be on par with the original and serve as an amazing follow-up to it. But time will tell on that, for right now, Rebirth is an incredibly solid game and has me excited.
This review contains spoilers
I wanna say first of all that Quistis is pretty hot and Rinoa is probably my fav of the main heroines from the PS1 trilogy (sorry Aerith and Garnet).
I would like for everyone to formally apologize to me for making me think that FF8 was mid or not as good as the others cuz it was amazing.
The junction system is pretty straightforward, put magic into a stat and watch as that stat gains nearly the max amount of stat points, and certain magic works better with certain stats.
That definitely made the game pretty easy for the most part, and the only part I really had trouble was the final boss where I refused to go out and get better junctions cuz I wanted to keep my flow, but otherwise the entire game is easy. That doesn't make it boring though, the junction system is fun to abuse, and getting to absolutely body enemies is a joy especially when you get Ultima as early as Disc 2 and proceed to abuse that draw point.
Character-wise, Squall is pretty equal to Zidane and Cloud for me, he has a great character arc that's enhanced by everything from the main antagonist to his supporting cast to his romance to even the names of the final boss themes, it's that well-done. And the music, it's great, Uematsu always does great work. I think this work is my 2nd fav of the PS1 trilogy, behind 7 and above 9, but those final themes really amplify the experience, though unfortunately they're not as catchy as Grand Cross or One-Winged Angel, but the themes surrounding those songs really help amplify them.
I think this supporting cast is one of my favourites. They feel significantly more involved and developed than 7's was, and actually being forced to at times play with characters I wasn't at all familiar with actually made me appreciate them more. Rinoa, again, is my fav heroine as she really is able to prod at Squall and make him think more than he wishes to. Half of his group having undiagnosed autism also helps in making him realize he's a bit too much of a loner for his own good. And Seifer being a reflection of him, it's all good shit and handled amazingly well.
And motherfucking Laguna, literally the SINGLE best girlfailure in Japanese media history. He's incredibly hilarious and an amazing foil to Squall's serious and moody attitude. Kiros and Ward, Laguna's buddies, also bounce well off him and act as true ride-or-die besties.
There's a couple negatives, mostly in that the menus are still making me accidentally exit out of them even 45 hours into the game cuz I'm both an idiot and the menus are unclear. Another negative is the level scaling, you level up too much and you end up making the game harder on yourself, but the same if you level too little. There's a balance, but as long as you take the time to junction appropriate magic into your stats and actually level up weapons (unlike me where I only did that in post-game cuz I didn't wanna farm materials) then you'll do fine despite how kinda jank the level scaling can be. But to make up for that, the ending is absolutely beautiful and it's def my favourite of the PS1 trilogy, it hits all the right notes.
This game is a solid 10/10 like the rest of the PS1 trilogy. It's worth your time, it should be remembered more fondly too, I hope more people realize how awesome it is.
(Spoilers also, but holy mother of fuck "Maybe I'm a Lion" is such a PEAK boss theme name cuz of what that means for Squall like that's so PEAK they were fucking COOKING with the finest ingredients)
I would like for everyone to formally apologize to me for making me think that FF8 was mid or not as good as the others cuz it was amazing.
The junction system is pretty straightforward, put magic into a stat and watch as that stat gains nearly the max amount of stat points, and certain magic works better with certain stats.
That definitely made the game pretty easy for the most part, and the only part I really had trouble was the final boss where I refused to go out and get better junctions cuz I wanted to keep my flow, but otherwise the entire game is easy. That doesn't make it boring though, the junction system is fun to abuse, and getting to absolutely body enemies is a joy especially when you get Ultima as early as Disc 2 and proceed to abuse that draw point.
Character-wise, Squall is pretty equal to Zidane and Cloud for me, he has a great character arc that's enhanced by everything from the main antagonist to his supporting cast to his romance to even the names of the final boss themes, it's that well-done. And the music, it's great, Uematsu always does great work. I think this work is my 2nd fav of the PS1 trilogy, behind 7 and above 9, but those final themes really amplify the experience, though unfortunately they're not as catchy as Grand Cross or One-Winged Angel, but the themes surrounding those songs really help amplify them.
I think this supporting cast is one of my favourites. They feel significantly more involved and developed than 7's was, and actually being forced to at times play with characters I wasn't at all familiar with actually made me appreciate them more. Rinoa, again, is my fav heroine as she really is able to prod at Squall and make him think more than he wishes to. Half of his group having undiagnosed autism also helps in making him realize he's a bit too much of a loner for his own good. And Seifer being a reflection of him, it's all good shit and handled amazingly well.
And motherfucking Laguna, literally the SINGLE best girlfailure in Japanese media history. He's incredibly hilarious and an amazing foil to Squall's serious and moody attitude. Kiros and Ward, Laguna's buddies, also bounce well off him and act as true ride-or-die besties.
There's a couple negatives, mostly in that the menus are still making me accidentally exit out of them even 45 hours into the game cuz I'm both an idiot and the menus are unclear. Another negative is the level scaling, you level up too much and you end up making the game harder on yourself, but the same if you level too little. There's a balance, but as long as you take the time to junction appropriate magic into your stats and actually level up weapons (unlike me where I only did that in post-game cuz I didn't wanna farm materials) then you'll do fine despite how kinda jank the level scaling can be. But to make up for that, the ending is absolutely beautiful and it's def my favourite of the PS1 trilogy, it hits all the right notes.
This game is a solid 10/10 like the rest of the PS1 trilogy. It's worth your time, it should be remembered more fondly too, I hope more people realize how awesome it is.
(Spoilers also, but holy mother of fuck "Maybe I'm a Lion" is such a PEAK boss theme name cuz of what that means for Squall like that's so PEAK they were fucking COOKING with the finest ingredients)
This review contains spoilers
So just to get this out of the way since I have started annoying people with how often I say this: The Answer is MARGINALLY harder then The Journey which means it's STILL easy. There was a total of ONE boss that gave me trouble, and the other bosses I died to were a matter of not acting stupid (except the final boss, that fight was very fair and my two losses were on me).
The Answer is an AMAZING follow-up to the base game. I think something people tend to forget is that the tragedy of death doesn't end at the person dying, it lives on in the people closest to the one who died, and you get to experience that in all its painful glory with the SEES crew. From the very beginning they're all clearly not over Makoto's death, and the various ways in which they cope and how they end up hurting themselves in the long run is very real and painful to witness. Yeah some people do some genuinely STUPID shit, Yukari especially, but that's what tragedy can do to someone. The Answers explores the aftermath so well, every member has to confront their feelings and realize how they're running away from their pain without even trying to face it. It's beautiful, it's really sad, and honestly it feels stifling at times how everyone is tired and just want to end things as quickly as possible, sometimes basically not paying to the obvious cues from the Labyrinth of Time to fix their shit.
Now gameplay-wise, it has the exact same gameplay from The Journey, so it's good. I think the enemy formations this time are definitely tougher and require you to think about more than just outputting max damage, such as trying to stall enemies or bait enemies into hurting themselves. It's a great refinement of what's in The Journey, but it honestly gets a bit tiring since it is the ONLY thing you can do. It's just dungeon, dungeon, more dungeon, a stop at Paulownia Mall in the past for supplies, and back to the dungeon. It just doesn't end, and even though it's good it definitely feels like it's overstaying its welcome up till the 5-boss boss rush at the end. That is the highlight of the story and really brings both gameplay and story to their peak. Contrary to what most people say, you don't really need to grind. Going up around 4-6 levels per door is fine, and it's easy and fast. I only had to grind once for the boss that stumped me, so it's still pretty fair and relatively easy to get through. It's a pain, however, dealing with every enemy have a dodge/evade element skill. It def adds to the challenge, and I appreciate that they gave a bit of coverage, but at times it was horrifically ridiculous just how often they'd dodge, even if I had buffs and debuffs going. Regardless of that, it was a really great gameplay experience, and I hope that tbe DLC for Reload manages to live up to how refined this felt (which I don't doubt it will, Reload had me actively wishing I could enter Tartarus).
Metis. She's perfect. What she means for Aegis, her role in the story, the drama and sometimes pragmatic view she brings to the situation make her compelling. And the twist at the end of who she really is is played great, and it results in an absolutely tear-jerking moment between her and Aegis, I adore them together. She's also a child in attitude. And additionally, she's very autistic-coded which I found painfully relatable at times when she'd shut down and get away from the group. So she's the perfect Atlus-re-release-girl.
Music is, as always, peak. I love that Mass Destruction here is basically a second verse, sounding more vicious, more focused, more wanting to get things over with. Heartful Cry and Darkness are the obvious standouts though, and those two remain some of the best tracks in the series. If Reload can make better versions of them I will literally throw hundred dollar bills at Atlus HQ.
Overall, this is pretty much a perfect follow-up to P3, and I hate everyone who made me think it'd be hard/mid. It's a wonderful package you can complete in under 25 hours, and I recommend everyone at least experience the story since it's a great story about coping with loss.
The Answer is an AMAZING follow-up to the base game. I think something people tend to forget is that the tragedy of death doesn't end at the person dying, it lives on in the people closest to the one who died, and you get to experience that in all its painful glory with the SEES crew. From the very beginning they're all clearly not over Makoto's death, and the various ways in which they cope and how they end up hurting themselves in the long run is very real and painful to witness. Yeah some people do some genuinely STUPID shit, Yukari especially, but that's what tragedy can do to someone. The Answers explores the aftermath so well, every member has to confront their feelings and realize how they're running away from their pain without even trying to face it. It's beautiful, it's really sad, and honestly it feels stifling at times how everyone is tired and just want to end things as quickly as possible, sometimes basically not paying to the obvious cues from the Labyrinth of Time to fix their shit.
Now gameplay-wise, it has the exact same gameplay from The Journey, so it's good. I think the enemy formations this time are definitely tougher and require you to think about more than just outputting max damage, such as trying to stall enemies or bait enemies into hurting themselves. It's a great refinement of what's in The Journey, but it honestly gets a bit tiring since it is the ONLY thing you can do. It's just dungeon, dungeon, more dungeon, a stop at Paulownia Mall in the past for supplies, and back to the dungeon. It just doesn't end, and even though it's good it definitely feels like it's overstaying its welcome up till the 5-boss boss rush at the end. That is the highlight of the story and really brings both gameplay and story to their peak. Contrary to what most people say, you don't really need to grind. Going up around 4-6 levels per door is fine, and it's easy and fast. I only had to grind once for the boss that stumped me, so it's still pretty fair and relatively easy to get through. It's a pain, however, dealing with every enemy have a dodge/evade element skill. It def adds to the challenge, and I appreciate that they gave a bit of coverage, but at times it was horrifically ridiculous just how often they'd dodge, even if I had buffs and debuffs going. Regardless of that, it was a really great gameplay experience, and I hope that tbe DLC for Reload manages to live up to how refined this felt (which I don't doubt it will, Reload had me actively wishing I could enter Tartarus).
Metis. She's perfect. What she means for Aegis, her role in the story, the drama and sometimes pragmatic view she brings to the situation make her compelling. And the twist at the end of who she really is is played great, and it results in an absolutely tear-jerking moment between her and Aegis, I adore them together. She's also a child in attitude. And additionally, she's very autistic-coded which I found painfully relatable at times when she'd shut down and get away from the group. So she's the perfect Atlus-re-release-girl.
Music is, as always, peak. I love that Mass Destruction here is basically a second verse, sounding more vicious, more focused, more wanting to get things over with. Heartful Cry and Darkness are the obvious standouts though, and those two remain some of the best tracks in the series. If Reload can make better versions of them I will literally throw hundred dollar bills at Atlus HQ.
Overall, this is pretty much a perfect follow-up to P3, and I hate everyone who made me think it'd be hard/mid. It's a wonderful package you can complete in under 25 hours, and I recommend everyone at least experience the story since it's a great story about coping with loss.
2022
Surprise game that I played while waiting for a certain somebody to return from Canadia to gift me Final Fantasy X.
This was surprisingly incredibly fucking excellent. I think the controls can be a bit of a weak point at times since it has no manual lock-on so it can't make use of directional controls in as intuitive a way as DMC does, but it handles the posture and parrying mechanics incredibly well. The dodging and parrying feels really good even if the sound and visual design isn't as distinct as in Sekiro, and getting to actually take part and perform these badass kung fu moves is incredibly fun. The game expects you to get good enough to beat it, there's definitely ways to cheese the bosses, but without that knowledge they can all definitely be hard to get through on a first go, and you can only retry so many times before realizing you're age 60 and have just a few deaths left before getting a complete game over. Going through levels again is great because as you get better, you start dying less, you begin to know how enemies attack and you can dodge and parry them so efficiently that enemies that were once pains in the ass are barely even a speed bump. Replayability is the game's strongest point, and it allows the 5 levels to be done in different ways to either challenge yourself or use different skills and builds or methods of fighting. It's one of those titles I just wanna keep replaying cuz fighting these bosses is just incredibly satisfying.
Can't say I remember the music too much, but when I did listen it fit the mood of the scene incredibly well, especially the true ending related tracks.
The art direction is stand out, though. Each level has a colour it bases everything on, and it's amazing. The third level, The Museum, has some of the best use of the game's art and it's incredibly pretty throughout. The final level also has strong art direction but with less of The Museum's avant garde-ness and more through the use of colour, dialogue, and atmosphere to set the tone. The game is a masterclass in that, and every level is memorable because of it.
Overall, this game has a billion and one good points, and not really that many negatives unless this isn't your kind of game. It's great, difficult, has great art direction, and the story while subtle really lends itself well and captivated me enough that I was interested in getting the true ending (very worth it, astronomical peak fiction).
This was surprisingly incredibly fucking excellent. I think the controls can be a bit of a weak point at times since it has no manual lock-on so it can't make use of directional controls in as intuitive a way as DMC does, but it handles the posture and parrying mechanics incredibly well. The dodging and parrying feels really good even if the sound and visual design isn't as distinct as in Sekiro, and getting to actually take part and perform these badass kung fu moves is incredibly fun. The game expects you to get good enough to beat it, there's definitely ways to cheese the bosses, but without that knowledge they can all definitely be hard to get through on a first go, and you can only retry so many times before realizing you're age 60 and have just a few deaths left before getting a complete game over. Going through levels again is great because as you get better, you start dying less, you begin to know how enemies attack and you can dodge and parry them so efficiently that enemies that were once pains in the ass are barely even a speed bump. Replayability is the game's strongest point, and it allows the 5 levels to be done in different ways to either challenge yourself or use different skills and builds or methods of fighting. It's one of those titles I just wanna keep replaying cuz fighting these bosses is just incredibly satisfying.
Can't say I remember the music too much, but when I did listen it fit the mood of the scene incredibly well, especially the true ending related tracks.
The art direction is stand out, though. Each level has a colour it bases everything on, and it's amazing. The third level, The Museum, has some of the best use of the game's art and it's incredibly pretty throughout. The final level also has strong art direction but with less of The Museum's avant garde-ness and more through the use of colour, dialogue, and atmosphere to set the tone. The game is a masterclass in that, and every level is memorable because of it.
Overall, this game has a billion and one good points, and not really that many negatives unless this isn't your kind of game. It's great, difficult, has great art direction, and the story while subtle really lends itself well and captivated me enough that I was interested in getting the true ending (very worth it, astronomical peak fiction).