Need for Speed Retrospective #20

Booting up a new Need for Speed game really is like a box of chocolates. With its always-online mentality, glossy wet look and esoteric storytelling, Ghost's first outing is once again something completely different.

As for the MMO-like qualities, the game Rivals most reminded me of was Ubisoft's The Crew, which came out only one year later and is now sadly defunct. The cool thing about The Crew, though, was its vast, exciting and explorable world. Here, we get little more than a series of tunnels in which we sporadically meet other players minding their business. Even the series' own Need for Speed: World handled the open-world aspects much better.

To my great dislike, the racer/cop split from the Hot Pursuit subseries is back and once again amounts to little more than the necessity to do the same content twice, as perfectly exemplified by the two identical unskippable tutorials the game starts with.

Despite my personal hatred for authorities and the complete lack of visual customizability, the gameplay on the cops' side might actually be superior. On the racer side, the fact that I couldn't even pause the game combined with the cops on constant lookout for me made the game unnecessarily stressful. At each safehouse I took a deep breath of relief, evaluating if going back out there was even worth it at all. After a couple of hours I naturally decided it wasn't and never bothered with the game again.

This game is a roadtrip in the best kind of way.
I gotta be honest, I was immensely sceptical when I saw that FF7 Rebirth was actually to be open world or at least sorta open world. This kind of world structure often leads to bloat and uneven story progression, but I really like how they did it here - even if it is not perfect.

Before playing this I always thought the story progression in the original FF7 was weird. Usually you just go some place and then some other for no apparent reason. Occasionally, you might have a vague hint to what the direction or the logic might be, but it mostly feels pretty random. In FF7 Rebirth you're actually provided context! Like following the Black Robes until the party looses their trace or some incident along the way, that actually leads the party to wanting to learn more about the planet and go to Cosmo Canyon for example. Now this episodic and somewhat random story progression actually makes sense! The party has a goal, but they are caught into weird shenanigans or come across a place of importance for a specific party member. Even though the story is still very much meandering about, now I finally have the context to understand and feel like it makes sense.
This meandering feeling of a roadtrip is also FF7 Rebirth's biggest strength. Characters get time to interact in funny, silly, or surpsingly heartwarming ways and it is believable that the group gets caught up in a lot of side hustles to finance their trip or just because it happens along the way. Especially the sidequests give a lot more character time between all them, making this feel like one of the best parties in RPG history. Even if it is just stupid stuff like Tifa pushing Cloud playfully into the Frog mini-game or Barret being all sentimental about Marlene eventually growing up.
Mostly the open world is really nicely designed too, with a lot of vehicles/ new chocobo breeds that give each area a new gimmick to spice up exploration. The biggest problem I have with this is Chadley though. Way too much is funneled through him. You can't find the Summons or their materia somewhere in the open world, but have to talk to him, to fight them in a simulation, even though they are heavily tied to the places you visit in the first place. Chadley's simulations made sense in FF7 Remake, where it would have been odd for Ifrit to be running around in the sewers of Midgar, but I could totally imagine Kujata running around somewhere in the Gongaga jungle. Chadley also gives you some of the best materia in the game, but you have to buy it from him with "exploration exp" that you gather by finding stuff in the open world, half of which is really basic like mako springs analysis points, "ubisoft towers" (though not as bad) and monster hunts. This can easily make the open world feel like a checklist you just have to work through. Which is a shame, cause I really liked how they stole so many elements from (what I've heard) good open world games like little chocobo chicks leading you to resting points that also act as travel points. Some of the sidequest like protorelic or this one quest in Cosmo Canyon can also be offenders of just eating up your time by maing you run back and forth for four times or so, even though the lore actuall might be interesting.

Talking about interesting lore, this game gives so much more information about the FF7 universe, some of which is new like the Old Republic that was in place before Shinra controlled everything or information that is old like the backstory of the Gold Saucer being founded by a former Shinra employee; Dio. Some of this stuff is really good in further emphasizing how the fantasy world of FF7 has really been shook to its core by the economic and political changes of Mako Energy, but also what Shinra's rise to power in general has brought about. Like Under-Junon being barely able to survive as their living space had been chosen to be the space of operation for Shinra's military endeavours.

This game is also better in foreshadowing Cloud's trauma and episodic flashbacks and how he is influenced by Jenova and Sephiroth making Tifa's distrust and anxiety around him actually a focal point that often gets discussed, while at the same time giving them more space to reconnect, making Tifa actually a way more active character.
I also really like the romantic relationship between Tifa and Aerith, such lovely roommates. (They are soooo gay!)
In general though every character gets some time to shine and they all have lovely relationships. Barret just acts like a father to spunky, teenage Yuffie and Cloud is her grumpy uncle. It's a found family on a road trip.

Another negative aspect is some of the bombast. In general I think the game knows how to present everything and I also like how new characters from FF7 Remake make a reappearance, however sometimes it does way too much. Many people lament that the funny fight against Palmers robot frog was placed poorely in the middle of Barret's backstory and I agree. It wasn't the most optimal placement.
Worse for me however where some of the boss marathons the game throws at you towards the end. One of them concerns the second fight with Rufus, which somehow felt really bad in this one. That fight was already hard in the original, but here it comes right after another fight and as it was changed to accomodate for Cloud being able to attack from afar just made it immensely obnoxious to me. Same goes for the final series of fights that just would not end and throw random party combinations you have to fight at you or even a character you had barely played before. (While the very last fight is actually pretty cool, that boss also has an attack I really hated.) In general, I wonder if this game was properly play-tested or how why the difficulty spikes and plummets all over the place at certain moments; some of Chadley's (rather early) challenge battles (another place where good materia is relegated to the Chadley checklist™), where also absolute bullshit, either because you have to kill an enemy before the others kill themselves or are easily killed by your companions or because some enemies just have the weirdest stunlock attacks or attacks that hit so hard you have to babysit and heal constantly.
Another minor complaint I have is that the timeline shenanginas feels a bit like bloat. It is nice to see Zack in between story chapters, but so far it's not really important to the story. The ending with Cloud and how he not accepts Aerith's death or how he is still able to perceive her through other timelines could just as well have been done via the Lifestream. But I guess this is the problem of the second part to a trilogy, it will up the stakes but not really give any satisfying conclusion.

Anyway, in general I think this is one of the best Final Fantasy games and I hope they improve on it's structural mistakes as I think the formular is pretty good to be worked upon for future FF games. And I'm still excited to see tits conclusion.

Need for Speed Retrospective #22

Not only the first NfS game I was willing to finish in a while, but one I actually enjoyed all the way through. It's nowhere near the heights of the series, but after contemplating to give up on this retrospective more than once recently, it was a huge relief to finally be playing a competent and confident product again instead of something cobbled together in the last possible minute.

As the reboot title might suggest, they went back to the Underground/Carbon era look that the series is most known for. And despite building heavily on these earlier titles, I like how different and recognizable 2015 is. The permanently rainy and foggy night-time world looks and sounds absolutely stunning and the first-person cutscenes, as cringeworthy as they might be, are a decent stylistic fit.

Even in the gameplay department, it seems they were going down the remake/sequel route for Underground 2, my favourite game in the series. Comparing the two titles side-by-side, I can see that 2015 is doing remarkably well in many regards, though sadly lacking in others. Where unlocking and exploring new areas was a huge driving factor in NFSU2's gameplay, 2015's open world is wholly accessible from the start. Fast travel (even to unexplored areas) is immediately enabled and hidden secrets are close to nonexistent. All this makes the open world appear much smaller than it is and, frankly, quite useless.

Despite these points and some minor issues with the difficulty curve, I enjoyed 2015 quite a bit. After ten bumpy years of hit-or-miss games in the series, I am finally feeling optimistic again.

(One final point: This game has absolutely no business requiring a constant internet connection. Both idea and execution are terrible.)

Need for Speed Retrospective #12

I feel like I can't say much about Undercover that hasn't been said already. It's definitley no underrated raw diamond. It's incredibly ugly und incredibly unfinished. The visuals hurt your eyes and the handling and physics are simply non-functional.

The most amazing thing about this game is how many elements are just hanging in the air. The leveling system does nothing and the open world is just there. You can't even access the races from it properly. Clearly, the one-year release schedule was no longer going to fly for games of this scope. Please give developers more time and resources.

I cannot put into words how much I fucking adore the mature and gritty tone permeating the entire game being paired with such incredibly earnest youthful optimism. People are undoubtedly gonna call it "kingdom hearts" or "too anime" with smug grins (tl note: "too japanese") but it genuinely moves me to tears seeing how much hope and soul and overwhelming love they stuffed into this grimdark mega-budget blockbuster.

Main downside to the game, which is reaaaaallly glaring, is how horribly handled Jill is. She's the main heroine but stands around saying and doing nothing for most of the game, like she has no agency whatsoever. I'm not usually one to harp on stuff like this but her writing is just blatantly misogynistic which is really weird coming from the team that gave us characters like Ysayle and Alisaie.

"In case you haven't noticed, the god-fearing people of this realm and their pious leaders, care for but one thing - themselves. And they'll do whatever it takes to hold on to power. The rest of us are just a means to an end. The moment you raise your voice against them, you're decried as an outlaw, clapped in irons and sling into a cell to rot. [...]
No... this isn't a battle you can win with words. Believe me, I've tried... But nothing ever gets through. The world is simply not ready to listen. So to hell with talking. If they won't give us a say, we'll decide out fates another way. You can't blame a man for wanting to bring and end to all this, can you?" - Cid Telamon

You know, this game definitely has its heart in the right place and it was a passion project for everyone involved for sure.

The theme of freeing the Bearers and creating a better, free world for the exploited and oppressed stays throughout, even when things seem to get more mythical and "less grounded". (The Big Bad is shown midway through though, so it shouldn't really come as a surprise). What I like most about this is, that it doesn't even pretend, that the oppressed could talk their way out of this, but instead points out how on the one hand violence is necessary and so is building an alternative community on the other. The whole world of Valisthea is being eaten away by the Blight (let's be honest, it's climate change caused by the powerful) and so you try to survive in the little Hideaway, build an alternative community and even try to find new technologies, that aren't destroying the earth. Especially the characters in this Hideaway really shine, be it because they get interesting sidequests (more on that later) or be it because they change their dialogue after every major story event. You will help a gardener to grow new seeds and fruits, you can follow how an illiterate person goes from learning to read, to eventually writing a book if their own and you form bonds throughout that really make you feel, how this community grows slowly but surely. On the other side you topple the powerful or at least take their source of influence and power mostly by violent means (in grandiose, epic boss battles). In this sense, this game really feels very leftist in ideals.

Sadly, it does have some short comings. Many of the Bearers seem a bit passive and I would have wished more of them took an active or rather more meaningful roles, just like the oppressed do in reality. No revolution ever waited for saviour, you know? A lot of critic has been made that this is a story, where white people just decided that slavery was bad and I think that's a bit unfair. I don't even think this game was meant to make for racial metaphors like many would think, when they hear the word slavery. Maybe it would have been better, if the developers had modeled the oppressed rather after serfdom as it seems to follow more of a caste system of oppression and exploitation, rather than a racialized one. It also doesn't help that in some sidequests the strictness of revolution gets a bit blurry, when all it take is a couple of not-oppressed people on your side, that often will take the helm for change to be put in motion. It can also sometimes be a bit comical how often the Bearers are treated really badly, not only in sidequests, but also in casual dialogue.

Many people have been critical about FFXVI from the get-go, cause supposedly it's "too western" or "too action". But I really believe the developers just made a game they really wanted to make, instead of sticking to any conventions for a particular genre.

In fact I don't think I've ever played a game were I could see it's diverse influences so clearly. The grandiose setpieces (even including quick time events) from God of War (but more like the old trilogy) and other single-player AAA-Games, the political intrigue from Matsuno's games (Final Fantasy Tactics, Vagrant Story Final Fantasy XII) and Game of Thrones (never watched or read it, but I've been told some of the world-building seems almost lifted from that) the combat a mixture of Devil May Cry and Kingdom Hearts (honestly, why is nobody mentioning KH? This game plays like Birth by Sleep and DMC had a love child that got put into the Witcher environment!).

And then there is a lot of CBU3 design philosophy from FFXIV directly put into this game. Big areas, that are a bit empty and that only get more meaningful, when a side quest/ hunt takes you to some of the more memorable places. Dungeon-like missions, that are not only replayable, but that even follow the structure of FFXIV dungeons to a tee: action packed corridors broken up by three boss fights. I know many people lament the "missing RPG elements" or the poor crafting system, but I think it does it's job, keeps out the bloat (except for an over-abundance of materials maybe) and you get a new, most of the time cool looking sword every couple of hours. Kinda reminded me of KH1 actually. The exploration is a bit lacking because of that though, and especially in the later half I would only go out to explore, when I had sidequests or hunts to do.

Talking about sidequests. In the beginning they're are mechanical really simple and mostly serve to flesh out the world-building, in the later parts however they will be more more about the outcomes of certain side-characters and their arcs, making them sometimes even have a cool cutscene or two. In general they stay rather basic though, and especially towards the ends there can be so many, that the pacing of the story really suffers if you do all of them (though I think it's worth it). Otherwise I don't think the pacing ever gets bad if you stick to the main plot, usually it comes in nice 2-3h bites, that you can even do, when you're a busy grown-up.



"Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck" - Clive Rosfield

Grown-up is also what this game wanted to be, being the first FF game with an M rating and a 30-something protagonist. In the first couple of hours, this can feel a bit jarring, cause there is so much profanity and violence that seems to be here onky for the sake of it. But this gets better, even if sometimes you might wonder if the developers just really enjoyed, that they could use swearwords now as much as they wanted.

Clive as a protagonist doesn't really feel as revolutionary as a 30 year old protagonist in a FF game sounds at first though. The plot and his life go dark places, but I can't really say that I found him to be all that exceptional. Might be because I was always drawn to final fantasy because the male protagonist seemed way different from what I was used from western media and Clive seems more like Shepard or Geralt, but more emotional, nothing too emotional though and still very classically masculine.

Masculinity in general is a bit of a problem here. Not because the game is full of macho man - they're all very varied, but rather that the important women of the plot get cast aside rather quickly. Benedikta never gets to fulfill her potential as a character and Jill - the main heroine - and Clive's love interest is comically undercharacterized. She gets a really good moment about halfway through but especially afterwards she feels more like support for Clive above anything else. Sure, she is competent, but I kinda feel like she is missing her own motivation, that so many heroines in FF before her had. Yuna and her pilgrimage, Dagger wanting to find out why her mother changed this much, Tifa fighting for avalanche and only hanging onto Cloud because she notices something is wrong with him or Ashe wanting to free her kingdom. It's not even like XVI is missing good female characters. I think Annabelle is a great minor antagonist, Charon, Derys, Tarjay Mir and Eloise are all really cool characters, but they're more of supporting cast and not really Clive's "party members". In general I feel it's a bit weird how much of the plot focuses around Clive. Of course, FF always had their main protagonists, but a lot of things things here seem to be for the sake of Clive and that's not really something I like in a game in general. "Chosen one" story kinda bore me and I prefer more of ensembles usually. To be clear, there are other important characters, but the limelight really is on Clive and stronger than on previous protagonists in the series

All in all this is a good game and a good Final Fantasy game, as wel. I really like it and Final Fantasy always took from different sources of influence often western in nature. FFIX's aesthetic is directly modeled after the movie the Dark Crystal. FFVII started as a game about a detective in New York and the original FF emulated DnD as well as early western RPGs. Square always just wanted to make an RPG.
I think it's kinda silly, that so many people think this game is totally different from past FF, when in reality it's the FF Tactics reimagining, I kinda wished for. Too bad they didn't implement a more classical job system, even though the mixing and matching of Eikon abilities comes really close. I really like it, but I don't think it makes my top five. Just hope that when CBU3 makes another single player title that they improve on what they have here and maybe get a woman as a main creative - like Natsuko Ishikawa. You know the women who wrote parts of Stormblood, but more importantly Shadowbringers and Endwalker. Shit would sell like hotcakes.

"You cock" - Benedikta Harman

Sometimes it's the journey, not the destination.
The moment to moment vibes of P5R are just immaculate, the game is oozing so much style in almost every single screen and every gameplay system from battle mechanics, over social links confidants to every tiny side activity are just polished to perfection.

Where it gets tricky is in its themes and presentation thereof. The whole world is probably more based on Carl Gustav Jung than ever before. "Personas" in this sense fuse two of his concepts: the personas as masks (and thus as outward representations of oneself in social settings) as well as the inner shadows as negative aspects of ourselves we don't want to accept or that are not fit for social norms in general.
The collective unconscious as the reason why the same "archetypes" exist in many people, cultures, mythologies and stories: mother-type goddesses, the trickster, the old sage or a cat that can turn into a car...
This whole dedication to psychology, mythology and storytelling is one of P5R strongest aspects, but also were it falters. Our heroes are all outcast in one way or another and their Personas are often themed around famous figures, that have some trickster-like or otherwise mischevious qualities. They are Tricksters, gods that are not entirely good, yet their strange way of seeing and interacting with the world makes them also bringers of change; bringers of culture itself... And that at least works for most of the individual antagonists you face every month. Infiltrating their "Palace", their "distorted cognition" - that is there sense of self and their surrounding environment - to change them for the better. Where the game falters in its themes is when the whole thing gets supposedly "political". Shido is not only a very flat antagonist his whole ideology is super unclear - he wants to "make a strong country for the masses that can't rely on themselves" - you could argue that sounds very nationalistic, but we don't get to hear anything about how is policy is to be enacted nor what he actually wants to achieve. The whole things sometimes reads like a parody of a politician that isn't really saying anything - but this is our antagonist. We should know, what we stand against. (it also doesn't help that the game often frames this as "corrupt adults" making the whole thing seem very childish at times)
I also really don't like the flat commentary on "the masses". Not onlyour enemies, but our heroes as well often make commentary to most people just being "bored" and thus just on whichever side is most entertaining or trendy, they just want to be controlled and not think for themselves - or thats what the game tells us with the mouths of Shido and the Phantom Thieves both.
By focussing so much on psychology it also makes societal problems come down to a couple of bad actors - the evils of society as individual flaws of people in power, not the system itself.
This is visible the most when talking about gender. The whole Kamoshida sequence is really good an tackles abuse and sexual harassment in a very tangible way without becoming exploitative - only to have Ann having to model naked against her will for the next mission. In general some of the adult dating options and a couple of scenes make women the center point of sexual fetishes - and while they're not as awful as they were in P3 and P4 - they are still heaily disonant with its theme of changing society.
The game really likes the aesthetics of revolution but not its actual content. Makoto is probably one of the best cases here, she learns to go against the system and prevalent power structures, becomes a rebel and wants to carve a way for herself. She becomes a Phatom Thief ... and then she wants to become a cop...cause that will change society...or something... In Persona 5 Royal "change" just means replacing bad apples, not actually changing anything.

...and all that is just really sad cause the whole theming of tricksters and this cast of characters is actually really good. I love these misfits, I love this game, but sometimes I need to just skim over it's messages to still enjoy what's happening.

P.S. I still dated Makoto. Shut up, I can change her!

Need for Speed Retrospective #9

This game needs to be in the same conversation as Okami and The Wind Waker when it comes to timeless styles. I found myself just roaming around and admiring the view many times, which is quite the compliment for a game old enough to have a drivers license of its own.

Though not as explorable as in Underground 2, the open world is still dense and fun to traverse with plenty to do in each chapter. The game's structure is an interesting choice, its obvious weakness being its repetitiveness. After the first thirty minutes, the remaining 14 chapters become very predictable and can sometimes feel like a slog. Adding to that, the later police chases are very unforgiving and frustrating, as small mistakes will lose you a lot of progress.

Still, a fantastic driving game. You guys were right all along: This is the golden era of NfS.

Need for Speed Retrospective #8

NFSU2 resembles a traditional RPG more than it does a driving game. Your car is your main character, gradually growing in power and visual pizzazz as you progress through the story. I think everyone who played this game fondly remembers their first little Peugeot or Volkswagen they started their journey with. A remarkable achievement for a game like this.

The game's open world very much augments this style of gameplay, with new and more interesting parts of the city unlocking piece by piece. I also love the fact that NFSU2 is bold enough not to boast any fast-travel, making wayfinding and route planning an integral part of the gameplay experience. The way exploration is rewarded by finding new shops and parts makes for a fun experience as the player both hones their skills and grows more familiar with their surroundings.

Fantastic experience, easily the best one so far.